COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY  STUDIES  IN  ENGLISH 


ENGLISH   TRAGICOMEDY 


ENGLISH    TRAGICOMEDY 


ITS   ORIGIN  AND   HISTORY 


BY 

FRANK  HUMPHREY  RISTINE,  Ph.D. 


Submitted  in  Partial  Fulfilment   of  the  Requirements  for 

THE  Degree  of  Doctor  of  Philosophy,  in  the  Faculty 

OF  Philosophy,  Columbia  University 


NEW  YORK 
1910 


Copyright,    1910 
By  The  Columbia  University  Press 

Printed  from  type  September,  1910 


PRES3  OF 

THE  NEW  Era  Printino  coMP*Nr 
Lancaster.  Pa. 


I6j 


This  Monograph  has  been  approved  by  the  Department  of  Eng- 
lish in  Columbia  University  as  a  contribution  to  knowledge  worthy 

of  publication. 

A.   H.  THORNDIKE, 

Secretary. 


2070C2 


CONTENTS 

PAGE. 

Introduction    vii 

Chapter  I 
The  Origin  of  Tragicomedy i 

Chapter  II 
Early  Foreign  Developments 26 

Chapter  III 
The  Beginnings  OF  English  Tragicomedy  (1564-1600).     60  k 

Chapter  IV 
Some  Transitional  Developments  (1600-1610) 96 

Chapter  V 
The  Heyday  of  English  Tragicomedy  (1610-1642) ....    iii 

Chapter  VI 
The  Decline  of  Tragicomedy  (1642-1700) 150 

Chapter  VII 

Concluding  Aspects  of  English  Tragicomedy 188 

Appendix — A  List  of  English  Tragicomedies 207 

Bibliography    229 

Index    234 


PREFACE 

This  work  is  an  attempt  to  present  a  comprehensive  survey 
of  a  relatively  unexplored  field  in  English  drama.  In  spite  of 
the  study  and  research  lavished  upon  other  phases  of  dramatic 
literature,  the  subject  of  tragicomedy  has  been  consistently 
neglected  in  literary  history  and  has  almost  escaped  the  atten- 
tion of  the  critical  investigator  as  well.  The  only  special 
monograph  in  the  field,  Dr.  H.  C.  Lancaster's  study  of  "  The 
French  Tragi-Comedy :  Its  Origin  and  Development  from 
1552  to  1628",  deals,  as  the  title  proclaims,  with  a  foreign 
aspect  of  the  subject;  and  so  far  as  England  is  concerned,  the 
only  important  critical  matter  bearing  directly  on  tragicomic 
drama  is  embodied  in  the  researches  of  Professor  A.  H.  Thorn- 
dike  in  the  Beaumont-Fletcher  plays  and  in  a  chapter  of 
Professor  F.  E.  Scheljing's  work  on  "  Elizabethan  Drama." 
The  present  study  has  presumed  to  cover  somewhat  dis- 
cursively the  entire  field  of  the  subject  in  England  and  to  de- 
termine, if  possible,  its  position  and  importance  in  the  drama 
of  which  it  is  a  part. 

Naturally  such  an  undertaking  has  been  made  possible  only 
by  taking  advantage  of  the  work  of  predecessors  at '  every 
step.  Apart  from  particular  cases  of  indebtedness  indicated 
throughout  the  discussion  and  the  aid  received  from  the  works 
listed  in  the  appended  Bibliography,  certain  obligations  call  for 
special  acknowledgment,  particularly  those  incurred  from  the 
above  mentioned  studies.  Wherein  the  plan  and  scope  of  the 
present  work  has  necessitated  retracing  some  of  the  ground 
already  covered  by  Dr.  Lancaster's  dissertation,  adequate 
acknowledgment,  I  trust,  has  been  made,  though  I  am  conscious 
of  other  obligations  to  that  able  thesis  which  can  not  always 
be  readily  traced.  Professor  Schelling's  monumental  history 
of  the  Elizabethan  drama  has  been  of  constant  assistance,  as 
it  must  be  to  all  who  work  in  that  field.  But  my  most  personal 
obligations  are  to  Professor  Ashley  H.  Thorndike.     To  at- 


VI 

tempt  to  add  to  his  discussion  of  the  early  tragicomic  drama 
of  Beaumont  and  Fletcher  would  be  a  work  of  supererogation ; 
while  the  indebtedness  of  my  essay  to  his  book  on  "  Tragedy  ", 
particularly  in  respect  to  general  plan  and  to  organization  of 
material,  will  be  readily  apparent  to  anyone  familiar  with  that 
volume.  And  if  my  debt  to  Professor  Thorndike's  printed 
work  has  been  much,  my  debt  to  his  personal  assistance  has 
been  more ;  for  to  him  this  study  owes  its  inception,  and  under 
his  personal  direction  it  has  been  prosecuted  to  completion. 

My  thanks  are  due  also  to  the  other  members  of  the  depart- 
ments of  English  and  Comparative  Literature  at  Columbia 
under  whom  I  have  studied,  especially  to  Professor  Brander 
Matthews,  Professor  William  W.  Lawrence,  and  Professor 
Jefferson  B.  Fletcher,  who  have  kindly  read  the  manuscript 
and  given  me  the  benefit  of  their  helpful  suggestions ;  and 
to  my  friend  and  fellow  student,  Dr.  Ernest  Hunter  Wright, 
who  has  contributed  certain  bibliographical  matters  inaccessible 
to  me  in  the  British  Museum. 

F.  H.  R. 

Wabash  College,  May,  1910. 


:■"-< 


ENGLISH  TRAGICOMEDY 

ITS  ORIGIN  AND  HISTORY 


INTRODUCTION 

The  difficulties  and  problems  confronting  one  who  would 
trace  the  evolution  of  that  phase  of  the  English  drama  known 
as  tragicomedy  are  as  persistent  as  they  are  perplexing.  Per- 
haps the  main  crux  hinges  on  the  very  lack  of  distinctiveness 
that  is  and  always  has  been  attached  to  that  word  of  dramatic 
nomenclature.  Just  what  tragicomedy  is,  and  what  plays 
should  be  considered  in  a  history  of  that  species  are  questions 
that  will  occur  at  once  to  any  student  of  the  English  drama. 
To  the  lay  mind,  the  word  is  perhaps  only  thought  of  sec- 
ondarily in  relation  to  dramatic  composition;  for  plays  de- 
scribed as  tragicomedies  have  long  since  ceased  to  be  a  part 
of  the  living  drama.^  Present-day  popular  usage  doubtless 
employs  the  term  oftener  in  some  figurative  capacity  than  in 
respect  to  stage  plays.  Yet  tragicomedy  as  the  name  of  a  once 
consequential  and  recognized  dramatic  species  is  a  fact  known 
to  every  one  familiar  with  the  history  of  modern  drama ;  and 
while  the  initial  difficulties  attending. an  approach  to  the  sub- 
ject in  hand  may  not  be  totally  effaced  by. an  introductory 
discussion,  they  may  be  limited  and  in  some  degree  minimized. 

A  bare  statement  of  the  part  played  by  so-called  tragicomedy 
in  the  history  of  dramatic  literature  in  general  and  in  that  of 
England  in  particular  is  convincing  proof  of  its  importance  as  a 
literary  genre  and  of  its  claim  to  independent  study.  The  bald 
facts  are :  that  sporadic  productions  denominated  tragicomedies 

^  Henry  Arthur  Jones,  indeed,  described  his  Galilean's  Victory  (later 
called  the  Evangelist),  1907,  as  a  Tragi-Comedy  of  Religious  Life  in  Eng- 
land; but  instances  of  the  sort  are  certainly  rare  in  modern  drama. 


Vlll 


/began  to  appear  almost  simultaneously  in  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury vernacular  dramas  of  Italy,  Spain,  France  and  England, 
following  the  contact  of  the  medieval  stage  with  humanistic 
innovation ;  that  these  productions  steadily  increased  in  number 
and  popularity  with  the  growth  of  the  drame  lihre,  assuming 
in  course  of  time  more  or  less  definite  characteristics,  enlist- 
ing critical  defenders  and  opponents,  and  forming  no  incon- 
siderable part  of  the  seventeenth  century  national  drama  of 
each  country;  and  finally,  that  after  a  period  of  varied  ascend- 
ency the  vogue  of  the  tragicomedy  declined,  until  by  the  eigh- 
teenth century  plays  so  entitled  practically  disappeared  from 

\  the  popular  stage.  The  English  phase  of  this  transient  dra- 
matic evolution  assumes  a  special  interest  on  a  realization  of 
i!s  importance  as  a  factor  in  the  great  Elizabethan  drama. 
'Developing  out  of  the  pre-Shaksperian  stage,  English  tragi- 
comedy first  sprang  into  full-blown  existence  in  the  early  seven- 
teenth century;  thence  it  speedily  grew  in  popular  favor,  en- 
listing the  best  efforts  of  the  last  of  the  great  Elizabethans, 
and  maintaining  preeminence  over  all  other  forms  of  drama 
until  the  civil  wars  closed  the  theatersf^- With  the  Restoration 
its  popularity  began  to  abate ;  changes  in  social  and  theatrical 
conditions  accomplished  its  steady  decay;  and  by  the  dawn  of 

\the  Augustan  era  the  type  in  England  was  a  relic  of  the  past. 
By  tragicomedy,  then,  we  are  to  understand,  first  of  all,  an 

-  extinct  dramatic  species,  and  one  whose  origin  and  develop- 
ment, while  paralleled  in  several  countries  alike,  we  propose  to 
trace  in  English  drama  alone,  with  only  incidental  notice  of 
its  related  foreign  aspects.  Under  these  limitations,  we  are, 
therefore,  not  concerned  with  parceling  out  the  whole  of  Eng- 
lish drama  according  to  some  empiric  standard  of  what  may 
or  ought  to  constitute  this  or  that  dramatic  kind.  English 
tragicomedy,  properly  so-called,  enjoyed  but  a  transient  exist- 
ence ;  and  consequently  it  is  futile  to  look  beyond  certain 
definite  bounds  for  plays  of  the  species. 

With  the  scope  of  the  subject  thus  roughly  indicated,  let 
us  consider  for  a  moment  the  nature  of  tragicomedy  in  the 
abstract.  While  baffling  final  definition,  the  word  as  it  stands 
may  be  taken  to  convey  an  idea  of  something  that  is  neither 


^ 


tragedy  nor  comedy — in  the  popular  acceptation  of  those  terms 
— and  yet  in  some  sense  both;  an  idea  that  need  not  seem_so 
paradoxical  when'we^consider  the  variable  character  of  all 
drama,  or,  indeed,  the  natural  course  of  human  events,  of 
which  the  drama  is  but  the  reflection.  It  is  not  difficult  in 
actual  life  to  conceive  of  a  happening  or  a  series  of  happen- 
ings that  fulfils  the  requirements  of  the  above  elemental  defi- 
nition. What  we  consider  as  tragical  and  comical  have  a  way 
of  shading  into  one  another  by  imperceptible  advances,  until 
the  juncture  is  lost ;  6r  what  may  appeal  as  tragic  to  onc'^si^ill 
be  comic  to  another.  Many  a  serious  event  has  its  humorous 
side ;  that  the  pathetic  is  akin  to  the  comical  and  laughter 
neighbor  to  tears  are  truisms  of  long-standing  acceptance  ;- 
while  the  comparison  of  life  to  a  tragicomedy  is  almost  as 
old  as  the  word  itself.^ 


What  is  true  of  actual  experience  is  equally  true  qi  chj^a.ij 
While  tragedy  and  comedy,  the  recognized  main  divisions  ofi 
dramatic  composition,  are  theoretically  of  antipodal  emotional  | 
effect,  the  one  js  con stantjy  blending  .with  the_  odier,  and  heM 
would  be  aTbold  man  who  would  presume  to  distinguish  them  *. 
absolutely.    Fontenelle  attempted  to  put  the  situation  concretely  X 
by  distributing  the  emotions  aroused  by  drama  in  a  sort  of 
prismatic  scale,  as  the  terrible,  the  sublime,  the  pathetic,  the 
tender,  the  amusing,  the  absurd ;  alloting  the  first  two  divisions 

■  Cp.   Shelley, 

Our  sincerest  laughter  ^ 

With  some  pain  is  fraught ; 
Our  sweetest  songs  are  those  that  tell  of 
saddest  thought. 

^  The  following  passage  occurs  in  the  writings  of  the  third  century 
Neoplatonist,   Porphyry : 

"  For  none  of  these  causes  did  I  choose  another  to  be  partner  of  my 
life,  but  there  was  a  twofold  and  reasonable  cause  that  swayed  me.  One 
part  was  that  I  deemed  I  should  thus  propitiate  the  gods  of  generation ; 
just  as  Sokrates  in  his  prison  chose  to  compose  popular  music,  for  the 
sake  of  safety  in  his  departure  from  life,  instead  of  his  customary  labors 
in  philosophy,  so  did  I  strive  to  propitiate  the  divinities  who  preside  over 
this  tragi-comedy  (KuiJi,Cf:dorpayc{}5ia)  of  ours."  Porphyry  the  Philosopher 
to  His  Wife  Marcella.  Translated  with  Introduction  by  Alice  Zimmern, 
London  (1896),  p.  54.      See  below,  p.  8,  note  29. 


of  the  spectrum  to  tragedy,  the  last  two  to  comedy,  and  as- 
signing the  intermediate  to  a  neutral  sphere,  properly  neither 
the  one  nor  the  other  but  mingled  of  both,  to  which  one  might 

\give  a  special  name.'*  As  a  matter  of  fact,  from  time  im- 
memorial there  have  been  plays  to  which  the  terms  tragedy 
and  comedy  in  their  traditional  significance  have  been  wholly 
inapplicable.  The  entire  body  of  Sanscrit  drama  with  its  pro- 
hibited tragic  conclusion  is  a  notable  case  in  point.'^  Euripides' 
"  Alcestis,"  Shakspere's  "  Measure  for  Measure,"  Beaumont 
and  Fletcher's  "  Philaster,"  Corneille's  "  Cid,"  Ibsen's  "  Doll's 
House,"  a  popular  melodrama,  or  a  modern  problem  play, 
are  all  examples  of  the  same  thing.  Certainly  what  we  may 
term  intermediate  drama,  or  drama  lying  on  the  shadowy 
border- fme  of  tragedy  and  comedy,  h^s  formed  no  small  part 
of  the  popular  drama  from  the  very  earliest  times  to  the  pres- 
ent; and  within  this  broad  and  indeterminate  division  we  may 
safely  fix  the  realm  of  tragicomedy. 

Thus  far  our  conception  of  tragicomedy  involves  broadly  a 
type  of  intermediate  drama  which  developed,  flourished  and 

—  waned  upward  of  two  centuries  ago.  To  frame  a  more  par- 
ticular and  at  the  same  time  generally  inclusive  definition  is  well- 
nigh  impossible,  considering  the  many  variations  the  type  has 
permitted,  and  the  diverse  critical  opinions  it  has  called  forth. 
Indeed,  the  far  ramifications  of  the  form  have  extended  the 
name  of  tragicomedy  to  almost  every  variety  of  drama, — 
miracle  play,  morality,  school  drama,  pastoral,  academic  exer- 
cise, domestic  tragedy,  heroic  play,  political  squib,  farce — 
variant  forms  to  be  expected  of  any  dramatic  type;  whereas 
the  diversity  of  critical  opinion  regarding  the  practise  is  more 
or  less  peculiar  to  it  alone.  Whether  due  to  the  fact  that 
.tragicomedy  has  always  labored  under  a  critical  opprobriimi 
that  would  stamp  it  as  a  bastard  form  beneath  serious  con- 
sideration, or  to  the  fact  that  the  chief  cultivators  of  the  species 
have  rarely  fortified  their  practise  with  a  critical  theory,  there 

*  Preface  Generate  de  la  Tragedie  &  des  six  Comedies  de  ce  Recueil 
(CEiivres,  1764,  VII,  8). 

"  Cp.  M.  Schuyler,  Jr.,  A  Bibliography  of  the  Sanscrit  Drama  (New 
York,  1906),  p.  2. 


has  been  relatively  little  criticism  of  any  sort  on  the  subject 
of  tragicomedy  and  less  unanimity  of  opinion  as  to  what  con- 
stituted the  same. 

As  the  peculiar  attributes  of  the  type,  there  have  been  \\ 
advanced :  the  serious  nature  of  the  plot,  the^abs^nce  of  deaths. 
the  freedom  from  rule,  the  noble  rank  of__ths_dia.racte.rs,  the 
romantic  nature  of  the  subject,^  the  happy  denoueme^^t,  and 
perhaps  most  frequently,  the  mixture  oftragic  and  comic 
parts?  This  Fast  particular^the^  mixture  ofjragic  and  comic  '</" 
plLrts7~or  rather  the  introduction  of  comedy  into  tragedy — 
English  criticism  especially,  whenever  it  deigned  to  notice 
tragicomedy  at  all,  immediately  seized  upon  and  stubbornly 
retained  as  the  constituent  principle  of  the  species,  in  direct 
defiance  of  actual  stage  tradition; — a  perversity  of  criticism 
typifying  the  essential  lack  of  coordination  between  English 
dramatic  theory  and  practise  which  was  characteristic  of  the 
time.  Perhaps  the  Italian  Guarini,  the  only  real  exponent  of 
a  carefully  formulated  theory  of  tragicomedy,  in  his  volu- 
minous writings  defending  his  famous  "  Pastor  Fido "  most 
nearly  approximated  the  true  essence  of  the  perfected  type. 
The  gist  of  his  argument  is'that  tragicomedy,  far  from  being  '*\ 
a  discordant  mixture  of  tragedy  and  comedy,  is  a  thorn  blend 
of  such  parts  of  each  as  can  stand  together  with  verisimilitude 
with  the  result  that  the^death^^ofjtragedy  are  reduced  to  t\e 
danger  of~3eaths,  and  the  whole  in  every  respect  a  gradu;j;ed 
me^an  betweHFIEe"airsterity  and  dignity  of  the  one  atra  the 
pleasantness  and  ease  of^  the  oFher — a  theory  s\vo^*:lf  echoed  / 
in  England,  Spain  and  France,  and  doubtless  '.istrumental  in 
establishing  the  species. 

Altho  anticipating  later  discussion,  we  rxay  examine  here 
briefly  the  stability  of  some  of  the  criteria  -f.  equently  advanced 
for  tragicomedy.     The  mere  mixing  of  t  agic  and  comic  ele-  N^ 
ments  as  the  chief  essential  of  the  type  nay  be  summarily  re- 

®  For  an  account  of  the  most  important  r^'rench  and  German  critical 
opinions  on  tragicomedy,  see  H.  C.  Lanca^  er,  The  French  Tragi-Comedy 
(1907),  p.  xi  ff.  In  the  ensuing  study  aP  contemporary  definitions  bearing 
directly  on  English  tragicomedy  are,  A  course,  given  in  chronological 
order. 


X 


I  "  jcctcd,  as  an  idea  of  no  foinidation  in  actual  practise,  despite 
its  prevalence  in  both  critical  opinion  and  popular  notion ; 
altho  we  shall  find  that  interspersed  comedy  is  a  common  tho 
not  a  peculiar  characteristic  of  fully  developed  tragicomedy. 

^  Again,  as  our  subject  is  essentially  a  product  of  the  drome  lihre, 
its  innate  independence  of  the  so-called  dramatic  rules  and 
precepts  goes  without  saying,  altho,  it  may  be  noted,  plays  of 
the  name  have  been  written  which  are  as  regular  as  the  most 

a      austere  classical  drama.     Romantic  subject  and  leading  per- 
sonages of  high  rank  are  equally  familiar  but  not  inevitable 
•^     attributes ;  while  the  emotional  efifect  intended  by  the  action 
may  range  from  that  of  the  most  harrowing  tragedy  to  a  point 
where  its  separation  from  the  purely  comic  becomes  a  matter 

♦^  of  individual  opinion.  Then  again,  the  absence  of-jjeaths  as  a 
final  test  for  the  form  bf^aks  down  de?fsivcly;  for  many  are 
the  professed  tragicomedies  which  admit  death  in  some  shape 
or  other.  Seldom,  however,  is  a  fatal  conclusion  meted  out 
to  those  with  \vlionT_^our  sympatliies  are  allied — a  fact  of  no 
mean  significance,  correlatmg  as  it  does  thejiTOstpronounced 

nd^djstinctive  fea^ture  of  the  type,  the  haj2py  dhimicnirvf^ 
True,  the  successful  outcome  of  an  unhappy  or  tumultuous 
action  will  not  necessarily  distinguish  tragicomedy  from  trag- 
edy. Yet,  whereas  from  the  time  of  Aristotle  the  happy  end- 
ing has  been  accepted  as  a  permissible  rather  than  as  a  natural 
accompaniment  of  tragedy,  of  tragicomedy  it  is  the  well-nigh 
indispensable  adjunct.  In  fact,  but  a  tiny  fraction  of  all 
avowed  p\ays  of  the  latter  kind  would  fail  to  meet  the  test 
of  the  happy  denouement.  The  importance  of  this  last  ele- 
ment to  the  subject  will  be  the  more  apparent  in  the  sub- 
sequent pages. 

As  supplementary  to  these  somewhat  general  characteristics 
of  tragicomedy  as  l  dramatic  type,  a  more  exact  conception 
of  the  nature  of  the  perfected  species  is  ascertainable  by  dis- 
regarding its  undefinable  variations  and  other  perplexing  fea- 
tures and  centering  atteniion  on  what  we  may  arbitrarily  deter- 
mine to  be  typical  tragicon-^-dy,  and  that  as  illustrated  in  Eng- 
lish drama.  While  our  suLiect  has  always  been  a  variable 
quantity  changing  in  accord     -ith  altering  conditions  and  in- 


t\a 


V 


Xlll 


Alienees,  yet  almost  any  group  of  tragicomedies  selected  at 
random  from  Elizabethan  and  Restoration  drama — such  as 
Beaumont  and  Fletcher's  "  Philaster,"  Massinger's  "Bashful 
Lover,"  Shirley's  "Young  Admiral,"  Carlell's  "Deserving 
Favorite,"  Davenant's  "  Love  and  Honor,"  Dryden's  "  Span- 
ish Friar  " — constitute  a  more  or  less  typical  body  and  furnish 
certain  definite  characteristics,  which  define  the  pecuharities 
of  the  form  and  distinguish  it  from  other  kinds  of  intermediate 
drama. 

Perhaps  the  first  impression  gained  from  reading  any  such 
group  of  -plays  is  one  of  startling  unreality.  The  reader  is 
transported  to  a  no  man's  land,  beyond  the  ken  of  human  ex- 
perience, where  men  take  on  superhuman  characteristics,  where 
strange  events  happen,  and  imaginary  history  is  made  and 
unmade  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye.  The  checkered  fortunes 
of  monarchs,  generals,  and  lords  and  ladies  of  high  degree 
engross  his  chief  attention;  war,  usurpation,  rebellion — actual 
or  imminent — furnish  a  subordinate  interest ;  while  a  comic 
touch  or  sub-plot  is  the  diverting  accompaniment  of  the  roman- 
tic action.  Love  of  some  sort  is  the  motive  force;  intrigue 
is  rife;  the  darkest  villainy  is  contrasted  with  the  noblest  and 
most  exalted  virtue.  In  the  course  of  an  action  teeming  with 
incident  and  excitement,  and  in  which  the  characters  are 
enmeshed  in  a  web  of  disastrous  complications,  reverse  and 
surprise  succeed  each  other  with  a  lightning  rapidity,  and  the 
outcorne  trembles  in  the  balance.  But  final  disaster  is  inge- 
niously averted.  The  necessary  del  ex  niachina  descend  in  the 
nick  of  time :  wrongs  are  righted,  wounds  healed,  reconciliation 
sets  in,  penitent  villainy  is  forgiven,  and  the  happy  ending 
made  complete. 

After  reading  a  few  such  plays,  one  ceases  to  wonder  that 
tragicomedy  is  a  relatively  unknown  dramatic  evolution  and 
has  generally  received  scant  attention  from  the  literary  his- 
torian. The  fact  is  that  the  very  nature  of  the  species  pre-\ 
eluded  any  possibility  of  its  permanence  as  drama.  It  is  even 
doubtful  if  the  form,  in  England  at  least,  can  be  said  to  have 
left  a  literary  monument.  "Cymbeline"  and  the  "Winter's 
Tale"  both  fall  short  of  the  full-blown  type;  for  Shakspere's 


XIV 


career  had  closed  before  the  new  dramatic  fashion  became 
ascendent.  And  the  "  Philaster  "  of  Beaumont  and  Fletcher, 
which  by  its  historical  position  and  long  continued  stage  popu- 
larity is  entitled  to  the  first  place  among  English  tragicomedies, 

^is  little  known  to  the  general  reader.  Indeed,  a  large  propor- 
of  plays  of  the  name  must  be  sought  in  first  editions. 

y  |The_essentia|_lack_^fjyTg_jritegrating  qualities  that  make  for 
llasting_drama  js_the__be.settjn^^ult  of  tragicomedy^  TF  pre- 
sents no  transcript_f rom  life :  it  neglec'tsjgortrayal  ^f_charac- 
ter  and  psychological  analx§is-ioiL4ilat-^n4-theatFi€aUty-f,  it 
substitufusnlramatic  falsity  for  dramatic  truth;  it  emphasizes 

k novelty,  sensation,  surprise,  startling  effect.  All  is  unreal, 
artificial,  inadequate.  But  it  appealed  to  the  taste  for  which 
it  was  written.  Among^an  juiicritical  audience  devoted  to 
romantic  extravagance  it  arose  to  the  pinnacle  of  popular 
/favSr.  With  the  coming  of  the  age  of  prose  and  reason, 
fashions  began  to  change:  the  vogue  wore  out;  and  English 
tragicomedy,  deserted  by  poetry  and  at  odds  with  taste,  became 
an  absurdity  of  the'  past — like  the  Arcadian  pastoral,  while 
many  of  its  essentials  were  adopted  into  sentimental  comedy, 
musical  plays,  melodrama  and  other  forms  of  intermediate 
\drama  that  sprang  up  in  the  eighteenth  century. 

To  gain  some  preliminary  idea  of  the  peculiar  nature  of 
tragicomedy,  we  have  been  considering  it  in  its  fully  developed 
form.  The  ensuing  study  is  rather  an  attempt  to  give  an 
historical  sketch  of  the  subject:  to  trace  its  course  from  the 
beginnings  thru  its  various  stages  of  development,  culmination 
and  decay ;  to  note  its  varying  aspects,  influences,  and  the  part 
it  has  flayed  in  the  history  of  the  drama  and  of  criticism;  and 
to  show  it  as  a  continuous  growth,  controlled  by  the  same 
natural  laws  which  preside  over  any  evolutionary  develop- 
ment. With  this  plan  in  mind,  it  has  seemed  necessary  to 
begin  with  the  very  sources  of  modern  drama  for  the  origins 
of  tragicomedy;  and  also  to  consider  the  early  vernacular 
developments  of  the  subject  on  the  continent  as  well  as  in 
England.  The  early  Elizabethan  drama,  being  the  formative 
period  of  the  English  species,  has  been  examined  in  some  de- 
tail, and  plays  of  indirect  as  well  as  direct  bearing  on  the 


XV 

subject  noticed.  Beginning  with  Beaumont  and  Fletcher, 
however,  the  field  becomes  more  restricte"3,  and  only  such 
plays  have  been  considered  which  either  offer  some  docu- 
mentary evidence  of  their  contemporary  recognition  as  tragi- 
comedies or  manifestly  fulfil  the  conditions  of  the  type.  In 
locating  and  collating  this  material,  recourse  has  been  had  to 
a  number  and  variety  of  sources,  including  many  seventeenth 
and  eighteenth  century  catalogs  of  plays — most  of  which  are 
utterly  unreliable — and  the  more  authoritative  lists  of  modern 
scholarship.'^  The  list  of  plays  forming  the  appendix  is  an 
attempt  to  give  the  sum  of  English  tragicomedies. 

''  As  most  helpful  for  this  purpose  may  be  mentioned  Langbaine's 
Dramatick  Poets,  the  Biographia  Dramatica,  Genest's  English  Stage,  the 
catalogs  of  the  British  Museum  and  of  the  Malone  Collection  in  the 
Bodleian,  and  the  play  lists  furnished  by  Halliwell,  Fleay,  W.  W.  Greg  and 
Schelling ;  for  which  see  Bibliography. 


CHAPTER  I 

The  Origin  of  Tragicomedy 

Modern  tragicomedy,  while  first  realized  in  the  Renaissance, 
owes  its  inception  to  generating  influences  that  extend  back 
to  the  very  beginnings  of  drama.  In  fact,  the  crude  essence 
of  the  form  is  absent  from  no  period  or  kind  of  dramatic 
composition.  Far  from  being  an  unprecedented  invention  of 
modern  times,  it  has  both  ancient  and  medieval  prototypes; 
and  its  lines  of  descent  are  the  same  as  those  of  its  stronger 
and  more  regarded  sisters,  tragedy  and  comedy.  To  the 
classical  stage  of  Greece  and  Rome  it  is  indebted  for  a  name 
and  authoritative  precedent;  from  the  religious  drama  of  the 
Middle  Ages  it  inherits  its  traditions  and  dominant  character- 
istics; and  to  the  humanist  imitators  of  classical  models  it 
owes  its  ultimate  realization  as  a  distinct  form  of  drama.  To 
examine  the  extent  and  character  of  this  three-fold  heritage 
will  be  the  purpose  of  the  present  chapter. 

(i)   The  Relation  of  the  Classical  Drama  to  Tragicomedy 

The  relation  of  the  classical  drama  to  the  later  development 
and  history  of  tragicomedy  is  perhaps  more  vital  than  is  com- 
monly thought.  That  the  classical  period  of  the  drama,  with 
its  rigid  distinctions  between  tragedy  and  comedy,  is  the  one 
furthest  removed  from  any  connexion  with  an  intermediate 
species,  would  be  the  natural  deduction;  yet,  in  two  ways  at 
least,  there  is  a  definite  and  important  relation  between  tragi- 
comedy and  the  ancient  drama.  First,  the  mingling  of  the 
motives  of  tragedy  and  comedy  in  one  dramatic  piece  found 
its  first  expression  in  the  earliest  period  of  the  drama ;  secondly, 
and  related  thereto,  the  question  whether  or  not  tragicomedy 
could  justify  its  existence  by  proving  its  classical  parentage, 
was  one  of  the  most  mooted  points  of  discussion  waged  over 
2  1 


the  practise  during  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries. 
To  understand,  then,  an  important  influence  in  the  history  of 
our  subject,  some  consideration  of  its  connexion  with  the 
parent  drama  is  necessary. 

The  classical  period  of  the  drama  is  regarded  as  a  time  of 
exact  distinctions  between  the  provinces  of  the  dramatic  forms, 
a  time  of  pure  tragedy  on  the  one  hand,  and  pure  comedy  on 
the  other;  each  carefully  distinguished  from  the  other  by 
accepted  theoretical  definitions.  Yet  a  superficial  acquaintance 
with  ancient  drama  is  enough  to  show  that  tragedy  and  comedy 
were  never  so  far  apart  in  actual  practise  as  classical  tradi- 
tion would  have  them.  Between  the  extremes  of  pure  tragedy 
and  pure  comedy  of  the  Aristotelian  formulas  there  was  always 
a  "  Tertium  Quid,"  a  something  that  manifestly  overstepped 
the  bounds  of  the  one  or  of  the  other.  The  two  forms  were 
continually  overlapping,  blending  one  into  the  other,  and  creat- 
ing an  intermediate  type  so  obviously  neither  tragedy  nor 
comedy  that  classical  critics  were  at  a  loss  to  name  it.^  The 
romanticists,  or  apologists  for  the  free  drama,  on  the  other 
hand,  seized  upon  every  possible  violation  of  the  strict  letter 
of  decorum  that  the  ancient  drama  could  furnish,  and  turned 
it  to  account  in  defense  of  the  mingling  of  tragic  and  comic. 

In  fact,  it  is  surprising  how  many  excuses  the  classical 
drama  afforded  those  who  sought  to  reconcile  tragicomedy 
with  the  supposed  teachings  and  practise  of  the  ancients.  In 
the  Guarini  controversy,  the  whole  question  of  the  legitimacy 
of  the  species  was  approached  from  the  standpoint  of  ancient 
precedent;  and  the  same  is  true  in  almost  all  contemporary 
criticism  that  championed  or  opposed  the  form.  A  review  of 
the  chief  arguments  advanced  by  the  defenders  of  tragicomedy 
to  show  that  the  mixed  type  of  drama  was  a  legitimate  pro- 
duction sanctioned  by  the  theory  and  practise  of  the  ancients, 
may  best  show  the  bearing  of  the  classical  drama  on  the 
subject. 

'  Minturno,  De  Poeta  (1559),  p.  108,  lists  three  kinds  of  imitation,  the 
Tragica,  the  Comica,  and  a  Tertia,  which,  he  adds,  is  tanqnam  his  iii- 
teriecta. 


No  subtleties  of  casuistry  were  left  untried  by  the  critical 
advocates  of  the  free  drama  in  their  efforts  to  justify  tragi- 
comedy by  ancient  dramatic  theory.  Even  the  fact  that  the 
"  Poetics  "  of  Aristotle  nowhere  mentioned  tragicomedy  was 
no  serious  barrier  to  the  defenders  of  the  type.  On  the  other 
hand,  one  passage  of  the  "  Poetics  "  was  eagerly  advanced  in 
support  of  the  claim  that,  if  Aristotle  did  not  speak  of  tragi- 
comedy by  name,  he  yet  described  and  gave  a  place  to  a  dra- 
matic form  so  similar  to  it  as  to  be  practically  the  same.-  The 
passage  in  question  is  the  one  setting  forth  the  second  kind 
of  tragedy : 

"  In  the  second  rank  comes  the  kind  of  tragedy  which  some  place  first. 
Like  the  Odyssey,  it  has  a  double  thread  of  plot,  and  also  an  opposite 
catastrophe  for  the  good  and  for  the  bad.  It  is  accounted  the  best  because 
of  the  weakness  of  the  spectators ;  for  the  poet  is  guided  in  what  he  writes 
by  the  wishes  of  his  audience.  The  pleasure,  however,  thence  derived 
is  not  the  true  tragic  pleasure.  It  is  proper  rather  to  Comedy,  where 
those  who,  in  the  piece,  are  the  deadliest  enemies — like  Orestes  and 
^gisthus — quit  the  stage  as  friends  at  the  close,  and  no  one  slays  or  is 
slain,"  ^ 

This  recognition  by  the  highest  critical  authority  of  the  pos- 
sibility of  a  tragedy  of  double  plot  and  happy  ending  was  made 
much  of,  not  only  by  Guarini  and  his  coterie,  but  also  by  other 
critics  who  interpreted  it  as  a  veritable  admission  of  the  legiti- 
macy of  tragicomedy  itself.*  It  is  to  be  noticed  in  this  passage 
that  Aristotle,  while  expressly  stating  his  disapprobation  of  this 
kind  of  tragedy,  observes  that  it  usually  passes  for  the  best,  and 
excuses  its  popularity  on  the  grounds  of  the  weakness  of  the 
spectators  for  a  play  of  happy  ending,  happy  at  least  for  the 
virtuous.  Popular  taste  in  the  drama  apparently  has  remained 
the  same  since  the  time  of  Aristotle.  It  became  a  common- 
place in  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries  to  apologize 
for  tragicomedy,  or  indeed  any  mixture  of  gravity  and  mirth, 
on  the  grounds  that  it  pleased  the  play-going  public;^  and, 

^  A  main  argument  of  Guarini,  see  below,  p.  39. 
^Poetics,  XIII.      Translation  of  S.  H.  Butcher,   1898. 
*  Cp.  A.  Donatus,  De  Arte  Poetica  (1630),  Cap.  LVIII,  De  Tragicomwdia. 
See  also  below,  p.  31. 
"  Cp.  Giraldi,  Lope  de  Vega,  Ricardo  del  Turia,  below,  pp.  29,  49,  51. 


indeed,  if  we  examine  the  drama  of  today,  we  notice  that  the 
happy  ending  is  usually  still  a  first  requisite  for  a  popular  play. 

While  the  Aristotelian  recognition  of  a  tragedy  of  happy 
ending  was  advanced  in  support  of  tragicomedy,  the  practise 
of  the  dramatists  themselves  in  that  regard  w^as  emphasized 
even  more.  The  ancient  drama  afforded  a  number  of  trage- 
dies whose  endings  were  "  proper  rather  to  Comedy " ;  and, 
on  the  other  hand,  classical  comedy  could  at  times  be  con- 
demned for  a  corresponding  overstepping  of  decorum.  Even 
classical  critics  admitted  that  tragedy  and  co;nedy  were  not 
always  pure.  Scaliger,  after  stating  that  a  genuine  tragedy  is 
altogether  serious,  adds  that  there  are  not  a  few  tragedies 
w'hich  end  happily,  and  many  comedies  which  end  unhappily 
for  some  of  the  characters.*'  Vossius  observes  that  tragedy 
and  comedy  were  often  of  a  mixed  kind ;  "  comoedia,  si  vehe- 
mentiores  recipiat  affectus ;  tragoedia,  si  leniores."'  Lope  de 
Vega,  a  classicist  in  theory  at  least,  reproaches  Plautus  for 
raising  the  style  of  comedy  to  a  tragic  loftiness,  which  Terence 
never  does.*  Nicholas  Grimald,  the  English  humanist,  defends 
the  tragicomic  character  of  his  "  Christus  Redivivus  "  by  citing 
the  precedent  of  Plautus'  "  Captivi."^  And  d'Aubignac  w^ould 
correct  the  misapprehension  that  tragedy  always  ends  unhap- 
pily, and  comedy  happily,  offering  examples  from  the  classics 
in  support  of  the  point.^° 

Among  Greek  tragedies  of  mixed  character  the  "  Ion," 
"Orestes,"  "  Iphigenia,"  "Helen,"  "  Electra,"  "  Alcestis  "  of 
Euripides,  the  "  Eumenides  "  and  "  Suppliants  "  of  ^schylus, 
and  others,  were  repeatedly  cited  as  proof  that  the  ancients 
themselves  did  not  always  conform  to  the  strict  canons  laid 

^  Poeiiccs  (1561),  III,  97. 

'' Poeticarmn  Institutioimm  (1647),  I,  xx,  7.  Elsewhere  Vossius  states 
that  there  are  two  kinds  of  tragedy :  "  the  pure,  where  there  is  nothing 
that  is  not  tragic ;  and  the  mixed,  where  Satyrs  are  added,  or  which  is 
given  a  happy  ending."      Ibid.,  II,  xvii,  2. 

^  Arte  Niievo  de  Hacer  Comedias  (1609).  Cp.  Ben  Jonson,  Every  Man 
out  of  liis  Humor  (1599),  III,  2. 

*  See  below,  p.  24. 

^'' La  Pratique  du  Theatre  (1657).  English  translation,  The  JVhoIe  Art 
of  the  Stage  (1684"),  IV.  5,  140. 


down  for  pure  tragedy.^^  And  the  fact  that  the  characters 
appropriate  to  tragedy  and  comedy  were  frequently  mingled 
by  the  ancients  was  likewise  quoted  by  the  defenders  of  the 
mixed  drama.  Guarini  reminds  his  opponents  that  Sophocles 
introduces  the  lowly  persons  of  comedy  in  the  "  CEdipus,"  and 
that  in  Aristophanes  there  are  mingled  characters,  gods,  citi- 
zens, rogues,  etc.^-  Lope  de  Vega  defends  the  mingling  of 
high  and  low  persons  by  the  example  of  Plautus  ;^^  and  Scali- 
ger,  in  the  same  connexion,  remarks  that  "  novelty  pleases  us 
in  things  dramatic,  even  when  a  play  is  distorted  to  secure  it."^* 
But  besides  tragedies  and  comedies  that  in  one  way  or 
another  overstepped  the  bounds  of  strict  decorum,  the  ancient 
drama  afforded  yet  another  precedent  for  the  mingling  of 
tragic  and  comic.  The  Greek  satyric  drama  of  the  tragic 
poets,  judged  from  the  sole  extant  specimen  of  that  type  of 
play,  the  "  Cyclops  "  of  Euripides,  was  obviously  a  composi- 
tion that  united  the  motives  of  both  forms.  The  humanists 
and  Renaissance  critics  frequently  described  the  satyric  drama 
as  belonging  to  a  mixed  species,  part  tragedy  and  part  comedy. 
Perhaps  the  definition  given  by  the  sixteenth  century  humanist, 
Casaubon,  may  be  taken  as  typical  of  the  Renaissance  view  of 
the  type.  According  to  him,  the  ancient  satyric  play  is  a 
"dramatic  poem,  joined  on  to  tragedy,  having  a  chorus  of 
satyrs,  setting  forth  a  notable  action,  partly  serious  and  partly 
comic,  of  illustrious  persons,  in  a  merry  style,  and  with  an  end- 
ing full  of  joy."^^  Scaliger,  commenting  on  the  type  as  a  by- 
product of  tragedy,  says,   "  there  have  been   some   satyrical 

"  Cp.    Giraldi,    Barreda,    Vauquelin,    below,    pp.    29,    51,    55;    also    Hugo 
Grotius,  Sophompaneas   (1635),   Epistle   Dedicatory. 
"7/  Verrato,  1588   {Opere,  II,  237).    -Cp.  also  Ricardo  del  Turia,  below, 

p.  51. 

^ Arte  Nnevo,  "In  this  we  draw  near  to  the  ancient  comedy,  in  which 
Plautus  did  not  fear  to  place  even  gods,  as  the  part  he  gives  Jupiter  in  the 
Amphitryon  proves." 

"  Poetices,  I,   7. 

^^ De  satyrica  Grcrcontm  poesi  et  Romanorum  satyra  (1605),  I,  3.  Vos- 
sius,  commenting  on  this  definition,  adds  that  the  chorus  of  satyrs  dis- 
tinguishes the  type  from  tragicocoiuocdia  and  the  Plilyacograpbia  of 
Rhinthon.      Poet.  Instit.,  II,  xix,  4. 


6 

plays  which  differed  httle  from  comedies  save  in  the  gravity 
of  some  of  the  characters.  We  have  an  illustration  in  the 
Cyclops  of  Euripides,  where  all  is  wine  and  jesting,  and  where 
the  outcome  is  so  happy  that  all  the  companions  of  Ulysses 
are  released,  and  the  Cyclops  alone  suffers  in  the  loss  of  his 
eye."^''  Guarini  boldly  claims  the  ancient  Satyr-plays  to  be 
tragicomedies,  and  quotes  the  passage  on  the  satyric  drama 
in  the  "  Ars  Poetica  "^'  of  Horace  as  perfectly  expressing  the 
"  nature  and  art  of  tragicomedy."^^  The  same  arguments  are 
advanced  by  Giovanni  Savio,  who  declares  that  tragicomedy 
is  an  ancient  poem,  as  the  satyric  drama  is  proved  to  be  tragi- 
comic ;  and  that  the  "  Cyclops  "  of  Euripides,  under  the  name 
of  tragedy,  is  nothing  more  than  a  tragicomedy.^^  The  six- 
teenth century  French  grammarian  and  translator,  Florent 
Chrestien,  in  his  "  Versio  et  Notse  in  Euripides  Cyclopem," 
also  terms  the  "  Cyclops  "  a  tragicomedy.-'^  In  fact,  one  of  the 
most  important  defenses  of  tragicomedy  in  vernacular  criti- 
cism, that  of  FranQois  Ogier,  is  based  on  the  satyric  example 
of  the  ancient  drama;  to  Ogier  the  satyrical  play  seems  only 
"a  tragicomedy  full  of  jesting  and  wine."-^ 

Apparently,  then,  tragicomedy  could  be  justified  by  both  the 
theory  and  practise  of  the  ancient  Greek  drama;  an  added 
argument  in  favor  of  its  classical  parentage  was  the  fact  that 
it  owed  its  name  as  well  as  its  earliest  expression  to  classical 
precedent.  The  invention  of  the  word  tragicomedy  is  usually 
ascribed  to  Plautus,  who  is  credited  with  having  coined  the 
term  in  the  well-known  prolog  to  the  "  Amphitruo  " : 

"  What  ?  do  you  frown  because  I  said  that  this  would  be  a  tragedy  ?  I 
am  a  god,  and  I  will  change  it.      From  a  tragedy,  if  you  like,  I  will  make 

^' Poetices,  III,  97. 

" "  He  who  contended  in  tragic  poetry  for  the  paltry  prize  of  a  goat, 
soon  afterwards  disclosed  wild  Satyrs ;  and,  uncouth,  attempted  jest,  with- 
out sacrificing  the  dignity  of  his  subject ;  because  in  this  way,  the  spectator, 
having  performed  the  rites  of  Bacchus,  and  drunken  and  lawless,  had  to 
be  detained  by  allurements  and  agreeable  novelty."     (11.   220-4). 

"  See  below,  p.  36. 

"7biV.,  p.  42. 

-°  Cp.  Creizenach,  Gcschichte,  II,  104. 

-'  See  below,  p.   58. 


this  a  comedy,  with  all  the  lines  the  same.  Do  you  wish  this  or  not? 
But  I  am  too  silly,  as  if  I,  who  am  a  god,  did  not  know  that  you  wished 
it.  I  know  what  your  mind  is  upon  this  thing:  I  will  make  it  be  mixed; 
let  it  be  a  tragicomedy  {tragicocomccdia-).  For  I  do  not  think  it  fair  to 
make  this  entirely  a  comedy,  where  kings  and  gods  appear.  What  then? 
Since  this  servant  also  has  a  part,  just  as  I  have  said,  I  will  make  it  be 
a  tragicomedy."  ^ 

It  is  to  be  noticed  that  there  is  no  hint  in  this  passage  of  the 
ideas  that  later  came  to  be  associated  with  the  word  tragi- 
comedy. Apparently  Plautus  uses  the  word  jestingly,  finding 
it  a  happy  expression  to  cover  up  his  violation  of  decorum  in 
introducing  the  divine  characters  of  tragedy  in  a  comedy."* 
The  term  was  obviously  ill-applied ;  and  tragicomedy  retained 
the  meaning  that  Plautus  invented  for  it  only  among  the 
humanist  lexicographers  and  the  classical  critics.  Such  an 
interpretation  of  the  word  is  preserved  in  the  definition  of 
comedy  given  by  Ambrogio  Calepino:  "  If  the  persons  of  gods 
or  rulers  happen  to  be  mingled  in  comedy,  they  are  not  properly 
called  comedies,  but  tragicomedies.""  And  d'Aubignac  insists 
that  the  only  real  tragicomedy  is  that  invented  by  Plautus,  so 

--  The  word  appears  thus  in  the  MS.,  but  it  is  to  be  noted  from  the 
emended  Latin  text  below  that  this  form  of  the  word  may  be  the  result  of 
an  error  of  dittography  on  the  part  of  the  scribe,  in  which  case  the  more 
logical  tragico))ia-dia  represents  the  proper  form  of  the  term  as  used  by 
Plautus. 

-^  quid  ?      contraxistis   frontem   quia   tragoediam 

dixi  futuram  hanc  ?     deu'sum,  commutauero. 

eandem  hanc,  si  uoltis,  faciam(iam)   ex  tragoedia 

comcedia  ut  sit  omnibus  isdem  uorsibus. 

utrum  sit  an  non  uoltis?     sed  ego  stultior, 

quasi  nesciam  uos  uelle,   qui  diuos  siem. 

teneo  quid  animi  uostri  super  hac  re  siet : 

faciam  ut  commixta  sit;   (sit)   tragico[co]mcedia ; 

nam  me  perpetuo  facere  ut  sit  comoedia, 

reges  quo  ueniant  et  di,  non  par  arbitror. 

quid    igitur?      quoniam    hie    seruos    quoque    partis    habet, 

faciam  sit,  proinde  ut  dixi,  tragico[co]moedia. 
Prologvs,  52-63.      Plaz'ti  Comadice,  edited  by  W.  M.  Lindsay,  Oxford,  1903, 
2  vols. 

-*  Altho,  as  Vossius  observes,  "  In  veteri  tamen  comoedia  etiam  Deum 
inducebant."      Poet.  Instit.,  II,  xxiv,  8. 

•^  Dictionariwi  Latino  Grcecum  (first  ed.,   1502). 


8 

that  the  modern  so-called  tragicomedy  is  a  complete  mis- 
nomer.-" Romantic  critics  occasionally  attempted  to  stretch 
the  Plautine  definition  to  conform  to  their  own  views  of  the 
type.  For  example,  Giraldi  states  that  the  tragicomedy  of 
Plautus  illustrates  the  mixed  type  of  tragedy  recognized  by 
Aristotle;  and  the  anonymous  critic  of  Speroni's  tragedy  of 
"  Canace  "  likewise  finds  occasion  to  identify  the  Plautine  play 
with  the  Aristotelian  tragedy  of  double  plot,  and  further  claims 
that  Plautus  called  the  "  Amphitruo  "  a  tragicomedy  not  only 
on  account  of  the  mingled  characters,  but  also  because  of  the 
happy  ending.-^ 

As  mentioned  above,  Plautus  is  usually  accredited  with 
being  the  inventor  of  the  name  tragicomedy.  No  doubt  the 
word  was  taken  over  by  the  drama  of  Renaissance  Europe 
from  the  example  of  Plautus,  whose  "  Amphitruo  "  was  widely 
known  in  humanistic  circles  during  the  sixteenth  century.  Yet 
the  Roman  playwright  cannot  be  considered  the  inventor  of 
a  name  to  denote  a  mixed  type  of  play  any  more  than  he  can 
be  said  to  have  been  the  first  to  mingle  the  features  of  tragedy 
and  comedy.  The  name  tragicomedy  really  owes  its  origin  to 
the  Greek  comic  poets,  whose  plays — dating  from  an  era  preced- 
ing Plautus — survive  only  in  fragments  or  titles.  The  meager 
records  of  these  lost  dramatists  preserved  to  us  by  Byzantine 
lexicographers  throw  a  little  light  on  an  unnoticed  chapter  in 
the  early  history  of  tragicomedy.  These  early  accounts  indi- 
cate that  a  certain  Anaxandrides,-^  one  of  the  most  highly 
esteemed  writers  of  the  so-called  Middle  Comedy,  wrote  a 
play  entitled  Comccdotrago'dia ;-^  and  that  a  lost  play  by  a  later 
Athenian   comic   poet,    Alc^eus,^^   likewise    bore    the    title   of 

-^ La  Pratique  da  Theatre  {Whole  Art  of  the  Stage,  IV,  5,  146).  Cp. 
below,  p,  185-6. 

^  See  below,  p.  31,  note  11. 

^  c.  B.  C.  404-330.  See  Meineke,  Fragmenta  Comicorum  Grcvcontm 
(1839-57),  I,  371. 

-^  K(oix<f)doTpayii)dia .  For  metaphorical  use  of  the  word,  see  Porphyrins  in 
Stobseus'  Florilegium,  XXI,  28 ;  also  Porphyrius'  Epistle  ad  Marccllem, 
above,  p.  ix,  note  3. 

'"  Contemporary   of   Aristophanes. 


Comcodotragoedia.-^^^  Also,  Dinolochus,^-  a  celebrated  Syra- 
cusian  comic  poet,  is  said  to  have  written  a  play  similarly  desig- 
nated. Little  may  be  gleaned  of  the  character  of  these 
so-called  "  comico-tragedies."  It  has  been  supposed  that  they 
were  comedies  with  some  tragic  admixture  possibly  not  unlike 
the  "  Amphitruo  "  of  Plautus,  which  very  likely  owes  its  name 
of  tragic omoedia  to  some  such  precedent.  Their  main  interest 
here  lies  in  the  fact  that  from  them  really  dates  the  origin  of 
a  name  to  denote  a  play  compounded  of  tragedy  and  comedy, 
altho  it  was  the  variant  form  used  by  Plautus  that  ultimately 
survived.  Comico-tragiciim,  however,  may  be  found  on  the 
title  of  numerous  plays  of  the  neo-Latin  period,  where  it 
apparently  was  quite  as  popular  as  the  reversed  form  of  tragi- 
coviocdia.^^ 

There  is  probably  no  connexion  between  the  Comccdotra- 
gccdia  of  these  lost  dramatists  and  the  later  Hilaro-tragocdia^^ 
of  Rhinthon,  a  Syracusian  playwright  who  flourished  in  the 
reign  of  Ptolemy  I,  King  of  Egypt  (a.  320-285  B.  C.)  f^  yet 
from  the  accounts  of  the  Rhinthonica,  as  plays  of  this  type 
were  called,  one  may  judge  that  they  also  represented  some 
mingling  of  tragic  and  comic  material.  Practically  the  sole 
information  about  these  plays  is  derived  from  early  lexi- 
cographers,'*' on  whose  accounts  Renaissance  commentators 
based  their  conclusions  regarding  the  type.  The  humanist 
Gregorius  Giraldus  states  that  the  Hilaro-tragoedicB  of  Rhin- 
thon were  mixed  of  tragedy  and  comedy,  "  unde  Tragi- 
comoedia  dicta  est."^''  Donatus  affirms  them  to  be  related  to 
satyric  drama,  and  to  be  of  a  middle  nature  between  tragedy 
and  comedy.^®  And  the  impression  generally  regarding  this 
lost  species  of  drama  seemed  to  be  that  it  represented  a  mix- 

^'  For  mention  of  the  Kuni^Sorpa-yi^Ua   of  Alcseus,  see  Lexicons  of  Harpo- 
cration,  Photius,  Suidas,  under  ddy](pdyos.      Cp.  Meineke,  I,  247. 
^=  Flourished  B.  C.  48S.     See  Meineke,  I,  247. 
^  See  below,  p.  23. 
"  i\ap0Tpay(fi5la. 
'^  Suidas,  Lexicon,   1498. 
^'  Suidas,  Stephanos,  Donatus,  etc. 
^'' Historia  Poetarum,  Grcccorum  ac  Latinorum  (i545)« 
^  Prolog  to  Adelphonini,  see  Vossius,  II,  xxi,   i. 


10 

ture  of  tragedy  and  comedy,  and  was  perhaps  to  be  identified 
with  tragicomedy  itself.^"  At  any  rate,  the  practise  of  Rhin- 
thon  and  his  followers  afforded  another  "  classical  "  precedent 
to  the  champions  of  tragicomedy,  and  one  which  was  made 
much  of  by  Guarini  and  his  followers. *° 

So  much,  then,  for  the  various  ways  in  which  the  ancient 
drama  has  played  a  part  in  the  development  and  history  of 
tragicomedy.  It  is  quite  evident  that  a  name  to  denote  the 
intermediate  species  is  not  the  sole  inheritence  that  the  clas- 
sical drama  has  handed  down  to  tragicomedy.  Two  other 
facts  are  evident :  That  the  mingling  of  tragedy  and  comedy 
in  some  way  or  other  far  antedated  the  earliest  of  Renais- 
sance tragicomedies;  and,  that  the  defenders  of  the  mixed 
drama  were  not  slow  to  make  use  of  this  ancient  precedent  to 
justify  their  own  practise.  On  the  other  hand,  the  arguments 
advanced  for  reconciling  tragicomedy  with  the  teaching  and 
practise  of  the  ancients  were  as  actively  contested  by  those 
who  opposed  the  free  drama.  For  example,  the  opponents  of 
the  Italian  tragicomedy  scorned  the  idea  that  the  new  form 
could  be  accounted  for  as  the  offspring  of  the  satyric  drama. 
And,  as  the  Hilaro-fragardia  was  not  a  regular  dramatic  poem 
but  a  monstrous  and  abortive  grow^th,  nothing  was  proved  by 
showing  its  similarity  to  tragicomedy.^^  The  detractors  of 
the  "  Pastor  Fido  "  were  also  fond  of  quoting  Cicero  on  the 
best  kind  of  oratory,  "  turpe  comicum  in  tragcfidia,  et  turpe 
tragicum  in  comcedia ;  "  and  one  critic  w-ished  to  know  how 
anyone  could  produce  tragedy  and  comedy  together,  when 
Plato  in  the  "  Republic  "  expressly  asserted  that  the  two  forms 
were  so  distinct  that  the  same  writer  could  not  produce  them 
separately.^-     Such  objections  continued  to  be  urged  against 

^*  Modern  scholarship  seems  inclined  to  regard  the  Rhinthonica  as  ex- 
hibitions treating  of  tragic  subjects  in  the  spirit  and  style  of  comedy. 
Some  half  dozen  surviving  titles  indicate  that  the  subject  matter  was 
that  of  tragedy ;  while  the  fact  that  they  were  called  "  merry  tragedies  " 
(IXaporpayifidlai)  and  "chatter-writing"  (<p\vaKoypa(pla)  seems  sufiicient 
proof  of  a  burlesque  or  comic  element. 

*"  See  below,  p.  36. 

*^  Cp.  Udeno  Nisiely,  Proginnasmi  Poctici  (1625),  III,  53;  see  below, 
p.   44- 

■•-De  Nores,  Apologia  (1590);  see  below,  p.  ^7. 


11 

the  practise  as  long  as  its  defenders  sought  to  reconcile  it 
with  classical  precedent,  and  the  arguments  on  both  sides 
usually  dwindled  into  absurd  casuistry.  The  dispute,  however, 
has  an  interesting  and  important  place  in  the  critical  theoriz- 
ing about  tragicomedy  that  extended  over  three  centuries. 

(2)   The  Medieval  Heritage 

Turning  from  a  consideration  of  the  classical  drama  in  its 
relation  to  tragicomedy,  we  are  confronted  with  the  question 
of  what  the  species  owes  to  the  other  great  tributary  of  the 
modern  drama,  the  medieval  stage.  This  question  has  to  do 
with  an  altogether  different,  and  indeed  more  important,  in- 
fluence in  the  development  of  the  form.  Renaissance  tragi- 
comedy can  hardly  be  accounted  for  as  an  outgrowth  of  clas- 
sical practise ;  its  connexion  with  the  ancient  drama  was  found 
to  lie  rather  in  the  field  of  critical  discussion.  In  the  case  of 
the  medieval  influence,  these  relations  are  reversed.  No  one 
sought  to  defend  the  mixed  type  of  play  or  to  account  for  its 
being  by  quoting  the  precedent  of  the  indigenous  stage ;  yet 
the  defenders  of  tragicomedy,  for  all  their  claim  that  they 
were  imitating  the  practise  of  the  ancients  in  blending  the 
tragic  and  the  comic,  were  in  reality  only  continuing  the  jdra- 
maTic  tradition  "ot  the  middle  ages,  which  knew  no  connexion 
witliTlie  drama  of  Greece  and  Rome.  The  vernacular  drama, 
then,  plays  no  part  in  the  critical  justification  of  tragicomedy, 
but  its  historical  relation  to  the  development  of  the  type  can- 
not be  overlooked ;  for  it  can  be  shown  that  the  religious 
drama  of  the  middle  ages  in  its  very  essence  is  a  more  direct 
preparation~For  tragicomedy  fharTf or  any  other  dramatic  form. 

The  heritage  of  the  medieval  stage  to  the  popular  drama 
of  the  Renaissance  is  well  enough  known  to  be  but  briefly 
indicated  here.  In  almost  every  feature  the  latter-day  drama, 
in  spite  of  the  efforts  of  humanists  to  conform  it  to  classical 
models  and  ideals,  betrays  the  dominant  characteristics  of  its 
medieval  ancestry.  The  discursiveness  of  the  subject  matter, 
the  blending  of  tragic  and  comic,  the  love  of  poetic  justice,  the 
disregard  for  humanistic  notions  of  decorum,  and  other  de- 
partures from  classical  ideas  of  dramatic  form  and  content, 


If 


•n 


12 

which  are  so  typical  of  the  EHzabethan  stage — and  indeed  of 
all  Renaissance  vernacular  dramas; — all  owe  their  origin  to 
the  religious  drama  of  the  middle  ages.  Consequently,  the 
medieval  dramatic  heritage  becomes  an  important  consideration 
in  accounting  for  the  development  of  any  dramatic  form  that 
arose  after  the  influence  of  humanism  had  made  itself  felt  on 
the  indigenous  stage.  A  pretty  definite  idea  of  what  either 
tragedy  or  comedy  owes  to  this  medieval  ancestry  may  be 
readily  gathered  from  the  early  germs  of  each  that  appear  in 
the  religious  plays.  Let  us  see  if  tragicomedy  is  not  even 
better  represented  in  this  common  fountain-head.  Altho  the 
extant  medieval  drama  of  all  countries  preserves  the  same 
general  features,  the  objective  point  here  is  the  tragicomedy  of 
England ;  and  our  results,  therefore,  will  be  based  on  an  exam- 
ination of  the  surviving  fragments  of  religious  drama  of  our 
forefathers. 

If  we  grant  that  one  conception  commonly  associated  with 
tragicomedy  is  a  serious  action  crowned  with  a  happy  ending, 
we  find  that  the  religious  play  by  reason  of  its  very  subject 
matter  lends  itself  directly  to  this  aspect  of  the  form.  The 
miracle  plays  were  usually  founded  upon  Biblical  narrative 
or  some  saint's  life;  their  purpose  was  primarily  to  edify  and 
to  instruct;  and  they  seldom  failed  to  emphasize  the  moral 
lesson  of  the  rewards  for  the  righteous  and  the  punishment 
of  the  wicked.  The  subject  matter,  being  essentially  serious, 
could  furnish  tragic  situations  and  possibilities  enough;  but 
the  inculcating  moral  purpose  demanded  that  the  play  end  in 
a  triumph  of  righteousness,  on  which  side  the  protagonists 
were  usually  arrayed.  Happy  endings,  therefore,  abound,  even 
in  the  themes  of  the  most  serious  cast.  The  favorite  material 
for  dramatic  treatment  seemed  to  be  Biblical  episodes  of  joy- 
ful outcome.  Abraham's  sacrifice  of  Isaac  may  have  owed 
its  popularity  as  a  theme  for  presentation  to  the  fact  that  the 
story  was  one  of  averted  tragedy.  The  raising  of  Lazarus  is 
also  a  theme  of  distinct  dramatic  value,  and  represents  another 
form  of  the  tragedy  averted.*^     The  whole  series  of  plays 

"  Cp.  the  neo-Latin  'Avd^iov,  sive  Lazarus  Redivivns.  Comocdia  nova  et 
sacre  (1539),  whose  author,  Joannes  Sapidus,  declared  that  it  could  also 
be  regarded  as  a  tragicomadia.     Creizenach,  Geschichte,  II,  104. 


13 

leading  up  to  the  Ascension  may  be  taken  together  as  form- 
ing one  great  drama  of  horror  and  tragedy  finally  sealed  with 
a  joyful  and  triumphant  ending  in  the  Resurrection.** 

Death,  indeed,  is  by  no  means  absent  in  these  early  presenta- 
tions of  sacred  material;  but  where  it  occurs,  it  is  either  the 
just  punishment  of  the  wicked;  or,  if  the  righteous  are  over- 
taken, the  end  cannot  be  considered  calamitous  because  of 
the  spiritual  reward  in  store  for  their  souls.  Thus  in  the 
York  pageant  representing  the  death  of  Mary,  the  end  is  miti- 
gated for  the  spectators  by  a  closing  scene  showing  Christ  in 
Heaven  sending  his  angels  to  fetch  his  mother  to  a  seat  right 
next  the  "  high  Trinite."  Such  also  is  the  character  of  plays 
dealing  with  the  lives  of  martyred  saints ;  for  the  emphasis  put 
at  the  end  upon  the  heavenly  consolation  held  out  to  the  holy 
j  sufferer  completely  nullifies  any  emotions  that  his  tragic  death 
[_  may  have  excited.  The  slaughter  of  the  Innocents  in  the  Cov- 
entry play  of  the  Nativity  is  more  than  compensated  by  the 
announcement  of  the  happy  escape  of  the  Child  into  Egypt. 
And  in  the  unique  Chester  play  of  Antichrist,  when  Enoch  and 
Elias  and  the  four  kings  are  slain  by  the  arch  enemy  of  Christ- 
endom, the  proper  deus  ex  machina  descends  in  the  person  of 
the  Archangel  Michael,  who  destroys  Antichrist,  and,  when 
that  worthy  has  been  dragged  off  to  hell  by  devils,  restores  the 
prophets  to  life  and  leads  them  to  Heaven  amid  joyful  singing. 
Thus  it  appears  to  be  characteristic  of  the  religious  drama  that 
,  the  tragic,  where  it  occurs,  is  either  averted,  or  relieved  in 
I  some  way  by  a  joyful  spiritual  denouement.'  Fla-ys  that  end 
in  anything  approaching  the  spirit  of  Greek  or  Senecan 
tragedy  are  not  to  be  found  on  the  medieval  stage.  The  nature 
of  the  subject  matter  and  the  distinct  moral  end  in  view  are 
the  circumstances  of  the  early  drama  which  preclude  the  possi- 
bility of  the  unrelieved  tragic  ending,  with  the  resultant  fact 
that  much  of  the  medieval  religious  drama  has  the  cast  of 
tragicomedy. 

In   one   other   respect   the   early   national   drama   deserves 

"  Cp.  Gayley,  Representative  English  Comedies,  p.  xxii.  It  may  be  noted 
that  the  neo-Latin  Christus  Rediviviis  (1543)  of  Nicholas  Grimald  is  called 
a  Comccdia  Tragica.      See  below    p.  23. 


14 

notice  as  having  an  important  bearing  on  the  mixed  type  of 
play.  The  indiscriminate  mingling  of  tragic  and  comic  that 
the  humanists  decried  in  the  popular  Elizabethan  stage  is 
n/  likewise  a  direct  outgrowth  of  medieval  dramatic  tradition. 
With  the  secularization  of  the  religious  drama  came  the  addi- 
tion of  the  comic,  often  injected  at  random  into  serious  themes, 
giving  a  play  the  effect  of  a  mosaic  of  tragic  and  comic  patches. 
The  playwrights  evidently  felt  the  need  of  relieving  the  serious 
and  austere  Biblical  material  with  lighter  touches,  and  accord- 
ingly lost  no  opportunities  that  their  subjects  presented  for 
comic  portrayal  of  character  and  realistic  touches  of  contem- 
porary life.  The  idea  that  Noah's  wife  was  a  shrew  may 
have  been  a  tradition  of  long  standing;  at  any  rate,  the  scold- 
ing character  of  ]\Irs.  Noah  is  made  the  most  of  in  three  of 
the  four  extant  miracles  that  treat  of  the  Flood.  The  char- 
acter of  Herod  also  seemed  to  offer  an  opportunity  for  bur- 
lesque. His  "  ranting "  is  the  comic  relief  in  many  of  the 
somber  pageants  where  he  appears,  often  furnishing  sharp 
contrast  to  some  tragic  scene,  as  in  the  case  of  the  wailing 
mothers  in  the  Coventry  play  of  the  Nativity. 

As  a  rule  in  the  English  miracles,  the  studied  comic  parts 
do  not  take  the  form  of  interruptions  or  disjointed  by-play  to 
the  serious  narrative.  There  is  usually  some  evident  attempt 
to  blend  the  mirthful  with  the  serious,  associating  the  two 
motives  by  some  connecting  link,  or  by  showing  one  as  the 
outgrowth  of  the  other,  giving  in  a  crude  way  the  eft'ect  of 
dramatic  counterpart  or  contrast.  The  murder  of  Cain  in  the 
Towneley  group  is  made  the  more  horrible  by  passing  into  the 
grotesque  comedy  furnished  by  the  servant-clown  Garcio.  In 
the  York  cycle,  the  shepherds  who  are  awaiting  the  sign  of 
the  Nativity  attempt  to  mimic  the  singing  of  the  angels.  A 
cruder  incongruity  is  found  in  the  Digby  play  of  the  killing 
of  the  children  of  Israel,  where  the  bereaved  mothers,  in  a 
rough  scene  of  horseplay,  unite  in  beating  one  of  Herod's 
soldiers  for  the  murder  of  their  children.  In  these  and  in 
other  plays  the  comic  is  so  closely  interwoven  with  the  serious 
that  often  it  is  not  easy  to  tell  where  the  one  passes  into  the 
other.     But  the  most  striking  and  pretentious  attempt  to  min- 


15 

gle  contrary  motives  is  furnished  by  the  "  Secunda  Pastorum  " 
play  of  the  Towneley  cycle.  The  sheep-stealing  episode  of 
Mak  is  a  complete  farce  in  itself,  inserted  in  the  very  midst 
of  the  story  of  the  Nativity;  but  the  pastoral  character  of  the 
piece  and  its  dramatis  persona  give  it  the  necessary  connexion 
to  the  enveloping  main  action,  so  that  it  really  exists  by  virtue 
of  its  relation  to  the  serious  theme  and  not  as  a  disconnected 
interlude. 

However  much  these  mixtures  of  pure  comedy  in  serious 
material  may  fail  to  appeal  to  our  own  artistic  sensibilities,  we 
may  be  sure  that  the  early  playwrights  were  in  no  way  con- 
scious of  violating  propriety  in  giving  their  scenic  presenta- 
tions the  grotesque  contrasts  of  actual  life.  The  mixture 
seemed  to  have  been  natural  and  spontaneous;  perhaps  it  was 
even  appreciated  from  the  standpoint  of  producing  a  gain  in 
artistic  effect.  At  all  events,  this  medieval  fondness  for  tragic 
and  comic  effects  close  together  persisted  far  into  the  Eliza- 
bethan drama,  in  spite  of  the  efforts  of  classicists  to  combat 
it.  We  find  it  taking  many  forms  in  the  later  drama ;  for  our 
purpose,  it  deserves  attention  as  contributing  directly  to  the 
latter-day  idea  of  the  possibility  of  a  two-fold  plot — one  comic 
and  one  serious — in  a  single  play,  an  idea  that  has  to  do  with 
one  of  the  most  distinct  tragicomic  conceptions  that  grew  up 
with  the   English   romantic   drama. 

What  is  true  of  the  miracle  play  is  even  more  true  of  its 
later  conteriTporafy,  the  morality.  In  its  serious  theme  and 
triumphant  ending,  as  well  as  in  its  mixture  of  pure  comedy, 
the  latter  form  carries  on  the  preparation  for  tragicomedy  that 
the  miracle  play  began.  The  moral  conflict  between  the  forces 
oF^ood  and  evil  gave  plenty  of  opportunity  for  an  action 
leading  to  a  tragic  catastrophe ;  but  a  happy  turn  of  fortune 
saves  the  day,  the  end  is  crowned  with  a  victory  for  virtue,  and 
poetic  justice  is  meted  out  to  all.  Viewed  in  this  light,  the 
early  English  moralities,  tragic  and  severe  as  they  are,  partake 
more  of  the  mood  of  tragedy  averted  than  of  any  pure  dra- 
matic form.^^     Such  plays  as  the  "  Castell  of  Perseverance  " 

*^  The  usual  death  in  a  morality  apparently  gave  the  play  the  coloring  of 
a  comedy  in  the  medieval   conception   of  the  term,  as   such  later   English 


r 


16 

or  the  "  Wisdom  that  is  Christ  " —  to  select  two  of  the  earliest 
and  most  important —  for  all  their  intense  seriousness  of  pur- 
pose and  troubled  action,  end  happily,  for  victory  finally  rests 
/  with  the  symbolic  protagonist  in  his  contest  with  evil.  A  sim- 
I  ilar  tragicomic  scheme  may  be  traced  as  well  in  the  great  ma- 
jority of  later  plays  of  the  sort,  both  moralities  and  moral  in- 
terludes, in  which  a  happy  spiritual  outcome  is  the  necessary 
accompaniment  of  a  didactic  action  which  has  as  its  end  the 
inculcation  of  optimistic  doctrine.  But  these  need  not  detain 
us.*^  Suffice  it  to  note  at  this  point  the  insistence  of  the  moral- 
ity on  the  happy  ending,  in  which  respect  the  moral  type 
directly  paves  the  way  for  tragicomedy.  Indeed,  one  or  two 
of  the  earliest  so-called  English  "  tragical  comedies  "  are  only 
belated  moralities.*^ 

A  recapitulation  of  the  religious  drama,  then,  from  the 
standpoint  of  its  heritage  to  tragicomedy  betrays  two  strik- 
ing features  that  persist  thruout  the  formative  period  of  the 
genre,  and  contribute  directly  to  the  whole  question  of  tragi- 
comedy in  England.  First,  the  didactic  purpose  of  the_xelig- 
ious  drama,  evident  in  the  miracle  pl^ay  but  the  essence  of  the 
morality,  demanded^ a  Type  of  play  that  resolved  a  serious 
complication  in  a  happy  ending,  happy  at  least  as  regards  the 
fortunes  of  the  righteous.  The  subject  matter  did  not  center 
about"  revenge,  injustice,  murder,  crime — motives  that  would 
resolve  the  action  in  a  general  slaughter,  a  defeat  of  justice,  or 
some  unrelieved  tragic  ending.  The  predominant  mood,  in- 
deed, is  altogether  serious,  and  tragic  situations  are  frequent; 
but  we  have  seen  that  they  are  only  situations,  the  tragic  never 
suffuses  the  action,  it  is  usually  averted,  or  at  least  confined 
to  the  background:  and  death,  when  it  occurs,  is  either  the 
wages  of  sin;  or,  if  it  befalls  the  holy  protagonist,  it  loses  its 
tragic  coloring  and  fades  into  insignificance  before  the  spiritual 

moralities  as  the  Conflict  of  Conscience,  Tyde  taryefh  no  Man,  Old 
Fortunatus — all  of  which  end  in  deaths  and  yet  are  called  comedies — 
illustrate.       See   below,  p.   65. 

*"  For  a  discussion  of  this  phase  of  the  English  morality,  see  Gayley, 
Representative  English   Comedies,   p.   Ivii   ff. 

"  Glass  of  Government  and  Looking  Glass  for  London  and  England. 
Cp.  below,  pp.  63,   79. 


17 

triumph  in  store  for  the  innocent  sufferer.  Second,  the  ming- 
Hng  of  tragic  and  comic  in  the  same  piece  is  another  expression 
of  medieval  dramatic  taste.  In  this  regard,  the  early  play- 
wrights were  responding  to  an  innate  dramatic  instinct  to 
conform  their  scenic  presentations  to  real  life,  where  tears 
and  laughter  are  never  far  apart ;  and  in  the  English  religious 
drama  at  least,  the  two  contrasting  elements  are  usually  inter- 
woven with  some  feeling  for  a  resultant  artistic  effect. 

These  two  traits  of  the  religious  drama  make  up  the  con- 
tribution of  the  middle  ages  to  the  later  mixed  drama  of  the 
Renaissance.  In  England  they  may  be  traced  thruout  the 
entire  formative  period  of  the  dranie  libre,  and  of  course  are 
directly  involved  in  the  whole  question  of  tragicomedy.*^ 

There  seems  to  be  no  record  of  the  use  of  the  terms  tragedy 
and  comedy  to  denote  the  medieval  productions  of  the  ver- 
nacular English  drama  before  the  contact  with  humanism 
in  the  early  sixteenth  century.  Apparently  there  was  no 
thought  among  popular  playwrights  of  associating  the  terms, 
which  indeed  were  current  thru  the  middle  ages  in  other  forms 
of  literature,'*^  with  scenic  presentations.  Naturally,  then,  the 
other  term  of  classical  nomenclature,  tragicomedy,  was  equally 
absent  in  the  indigenous  drama  of  western  Europe  before 
the  revival  of  the  classics  had  made  it  familiar.  It  is  worth 
while  noting,  however,  that  with  the  introduction  of  humanism 
the  name  tragicomedy  began  to  be  applied  to  pure  forms  of 
the  religious  drama,  both  in  the  vernacular  and  in  Latin.  In 
France  we  find  the  terms  attached  to  miracles  early  in  the 
second  half  of  the  sixteenth  century,  a  seeming  appreciation 
that  the  religious  play  conformed  more  nearly  to  the  mixed  type 

'^  The  medieval  contribution  to  tragicomedy  has  been  approached  wholly 
from  the  side  of  the  religious  play,  which  is  the  only  medieval  dramatic 
form  that  can  be  said  to  have  any  integral  bearing  on  the  subject.  The 
folk  drama,  however,  occasionally  represents  as  well  the  crude  essence  of 
tragicomedy.  For  example,  the  medieval  fondness  for  averted  tragedy  is 
illustrated  in  the  St.  George  plays,  where  the  action  consists  only  in  the 
mock  death  of  one  or  more  of  the  characters,  and  their  restoration  by 
the  "  Doctor." 

*"  Cp.  Chaucer's  Monk's  Tale;  Lydgate's  Falls  of  Princes, 


18 

than  to  either  tragedy  or  comedy.^"  There  is  no  instance  of 
a  similar  recognition  of  rehgious  plays  as  tragicomedies  in 
the  surviving  drama  of  England ;  yet  the  earliest  English  plays 
so  designated  are  indeed  either  belated  moralities,  or  at  least 
owe  their  classification  to  their  essentially  medieval  character. 

(3)  Neo-Latin    Tragicomedy 

It  has  been  seen  that  both  the  classical  drama  of  antiquity 
and  the  religious  presentations  of  the  medieval  ages  furnish 
certain  definite  and  distinct  lines  of  descent  to  the  inter- 
mediate type  of  play  that  flourished  in  the  Renaissance  ver- 
nacular drama  as  tragicomedy.  To  complete  the  early  par- 
entage of  the  species  it  remains  to  note  its  relation  to  the 
connecting  link  between  classical  and  medieval  drama  repre- 
sented by  the  movement  of  humanism.  The  neo-Latin  scenic 
presentations  of  the  early  humanists,  representing,  as  they  do, 
a  fusion  of  the  conflicting  dramatic  ideals  and  methods  of  the 
two  fountain-heads  of  modern  drama,  furnish  the  transitional 
step,  in  the  imion  of  the  classical  name  and  the  medieval  con- 
ception of  tragicomedy,  necessary  before  the  fuller  growth 
and  development  of  the  form  in  the  later  vernacular  drama 
is  possible. 

Following  the  initiative  of  the  humanist  Pomponius  Lsetus 
and  his  disciples,  who  were  the  first  to  attempt  a  stage  revival 
of  the  ancient  drama  at  Rome  some  time  in  the  third  quarter 
of  the  fifteenth  century,  came  the  impulse  to  adapt  the  prin- 
ciples of  classical  dramatic  art  to  original  productions.  Altho 
records  are  meager  regarding  this  earliest  humanistic  activity 
in  the  drama,  it  is  quite  evident  that  Latin  presentations  of 
both   Biblical   and   secular  material   followed   immediately  in 

^  The  two  earliest  French  plays  to  be  called  tragicomedies  are  the 
Tragique  Coniedic  Frangoise  de  I'hoinme  iustifie  par  Foy  (1554),  a  morality 
by  Henry  de  Barran,  and  the  miracle  play,  Tragi-comcdie.  L'Argument 
pris  du  troisieme  chapitrc  de  Daniel:  avec  le  cantique  des  trois  eiifans, 
chante  en  la  fornaise  (1561),  by  Antoine  de  la  Croix.  Dr.  Lancaster  in  his 
dissertation  treats  of  nine  other  French  moralities  and  mysteries  of  the 
second  half  of  the  sixteenth  century  called  tragicomedies.  See  p.  Z7  ff- ! 
also  below,  p.  54. 


19 

the  wake  of  the  stage  revival  of  Plautus  and  Seneca,  which 
the  study  of  Vitruvius  is  supposed  to  have  aroused.  It  is 
significant  for  the  history  of  tragicomedy  that  in  one  of  the 
very  earhest  of  these  neo-Latin  imitations  that  resuhed  from 
this  revival  of  ancient  drama  at  Rome  we  meet  the  name 
coined  by  Plautus  centuries  before  in  the  prolog  of  his  "  Am- 
phitruo  "  applied  to  an  original  production. 

The  "Ferdinandus  Servatus "  (1494)^^  of  the  Italian  hu- 
manist, Carlo  Verardi,  is  the  first  play  known  to  make  use 
of  the  Plautine  title  tragiconiccdia.  It  seems  that  Verardi — 
who  apparently  was  not  a  versifier — first  drafted  the  play  in 
Latin  prose,  whence  it  was  put  into  heroics  by  his  nephew 
Marcellino.  An  event  from  contemporary  Spanish  history, 
a  madman's  attempt  on  the  life  of  King  Ferdinand  at  Barce- 
lona in  1492,  furnishes  the  subject,  which  is  made  to  assume 
a  fantastic  religious  and  allegorical  cast  in  the  author's  treat- 
ment. Ferdinand,  the  champion  of  the  Catholic  faith,  is  rep- 
resented as  having  laid  waste  the  kingdom  of  paganism 
denoted  by  Pluto  and  the  Furies.  The  denizens  of  the  lower 
world  plot  vengeance.  Tisiphone  is  despatched  to  earth  and 
engages  the  assassin  Rufus  to  murder  the  Christian  king, 
promising  him  the  empire  of  all  Spain  as  a  reward.  The 
attempt  on  Ferdinand's  life  is  made,  and  Isabella,  terrified  at 
the  news  that  her  husband  is  wounded,  rushes  from  the  palace 
and  prays  for  his  recovery.  St.  James  appears  in  answer  to 
her  prayer,  and  the  king  then  enters  miraculously  healed  by 
the  power  of  the  saint.  The  play  ends  by  the  chorus  exhort- 
ing all  sovereigns  to  profit  by  the  virtuous  example  of  Ferdi- 
nand and  Isabella.^- 

,  It  is  to  be  noticed  that  our  first  Renaissance  tragicomedy 
betrays  the  traits  both  of  medieval  and  classical  models.  In 
/the    chorus,   versification,    mythological   names,    and   in   some 

"Aug.  16,  1494,  is  the  date  of  the  edition  recorded  by  Hain,  Repertorutm 
Bibl.,  II,  474  ;  but  it  is  quite  possible  that  the  play  was  first  printed  the 
preceding  year,  as  there  is  an  undated  edition  bound  with  the  author's 
earlier  Historia  Baetica,  a  play  printed  in  1493.     Cp.  Lancaster,  p.  155  n. 

"For  analyses  of  this  play,  see  Creizenach,  Geschichte,  II,  9;  Chassang, 
Essais  dramatiques,  p.  140-1  ;  Lancaster,  The  French  Tragi-Comedy,  p. 
24-5. 


I 


20 

aspects  of  form,  the  classical  influence  is  evident;  on  the  other 
hand,  in  the  pervading  rehgious  spirit,  in  the  shifting  of  the 
scene  from  earth  to  hell,  in  the  happy  ending  thru  miraculous 
intervention,  and  in  the  closing  moral  exhortation,  the  play  con- 
tinues medieval  dramatic  tradition.  That  the  author  knew  the 
rules  of  classic  drama,  and  yet  chose  to  disregard  them  in 
dramatizing  subjects  that  departed  from  the  stock  themes  of 
classical  tragedy  and  comedy,  is  evident  enough  from  the  pro- 
log to  his  earlier  play,  the  "  Historia  Baetica"  (1492),  also 
a  dramatization  of  contemporary  history.  Here  Verardi,  after 
expressly  declaring  the  independence  of  his  play  from  classical 
models,  adds,  "  Let  no  one  expect  the  laws  of  tragedy  or 
comedy  to  be  observed,  for  a  true  history  and  not  a  fable  is 
to  be  acted. "^^  The  "  Ferdinandus  Servatus  "  would  conform 
just  as  little  to  the  classic  moulds  for  tragedy  or  comedy,  yet 
it  is  more  than  a  mere  history,  as  the  event  presented  has 
distinct  dramatic  value.  Tragicomocdia,  then,  is  the  name  hit 
upon  by  the  author  to  describe  the  play.  As  in  the  "Amphi- 
truo,"  the  highest  as  well  as  the  lowest  characters  are  intro- 
duced ;  and,  moreover,  the  dramatized  event,  the  fortunate 
escape  of  the  king  from  death,  a  subject  which  manifestly 
leans  both  to  tragedy  and  comedy  and  yet  is  neither,  is  hap- 
pily described  by  the  Plautine  term. 

Thus  the  name  tragicomardia  was  revived  and  introduced  to 
Renaissance  Europe  thru  the  medium  of  a  humanistic  innova- 
tion, a  Latin  play  of  secular  theme  given  the  religious  coloring 
of  a  miracle.  Verardi's  production,  it  seems,  made  little  im- 
pression in  Italy,  despite  the  fact  that  it  was  presented  at 
Rome  with  much  pomp  before  the  Pope  and  his  colleagues, 
but  it  apparently  found  its  way  into  Germany,  if  indeed  it  is 
the  model  for  the  next  play  to  bear  the  new  name. 

"  Tragicocomedia  de  iherosolomitana  profectione  illustris- 
simi  principis  pomeriani "  by  the  German  humanist,  Johann 
von  Kitzscher,  is  the  title  of  a  Latin  drama  printed  at  Leipzig 
in  1 501.     Like  the  "Ferdinandus,"  it  is  also  a  dramatization 

"'  Requirat  autem  nullus  hie  comcedia; 
Leges  ut  obseruentur,  aut  tragosdias, 
Agenda  nempe  est  historia,  non  fabula. 


21 

from  contemporary  history ;  the  action  here  centering  on  the 
pilgrimage  of  Bogislaw  X,  Duke  of  Pomerania,  to  the  Holy- 
land,  1496-97.  A  series  of  lifeless  scenes  telling  of  the  Duke's 
departure  and  his  wife's  grief  in  his  absence  until  comforted 
by  a  letter  of  good  news,  make  up  the  piece,  which  is  then 
concluded  by  an  account  of  the  pilgrimage  recited  by  the 
messenger.  The  prolog  follows  the  "  Historia  Baetica "  in 
declaring  the  drama  to  be  neither  tragedy  nor  comedy,  but 
a  true  history;^*  this  must  account  for  the  author's  adoption 
of  the  novel  title  Tragicocomcdia.  There  is  no  record  that 
the  play  was  ever  anything  more  than  a  closet  drama.  It  is 
important  here  only  as  it  furthered  the  popularizing  of  the  new 
name  in  humanistic  circles.^^ 

The  above  two  tragicomedies  assume  considerable  historical 
importance  if  we  presume  that  to  their  initiative  is  due  the 
introduction  of  the  name  to  the  later  humanistic  drama  that 
flourished  thruout  Holland,  Germany  and  Switzerland.  At  all 
events,  tragicomedies  form  an  appreciable  proportion  of  the 
great  output  of  neo-Latin  plays  that  flooded  this  part  of 
Europe  during  the  half  century  following  the  "  Acolastus " 
of  Gnaphsus  in  1530.  The  type  is  chiefly  represented  among 
the  plays  of  Xystus  Betulius,  Jacobus  Schoepper,  Hieronymus 
Ziegler  and  Martinus  Balticus — schoolmen  whose  activities 
centered  about  Bale,  Dortmund,  Rotenburg  and  Augsburg; 
but  wherever  humanism  spread — to  France,  Spain,  Portugal 
or  England — traces  of  academic  tragicomedies  may  be  found, 
and  are  to  be  reckoned  with  in  accounting  for  the  dissemina- 
tion of  the  new  form.^*' 

These  school  dramas  represent  broadly  the  same  fusion  of 
classical    and    medieval    dramatic    conceptions    noticeable    in 

'"^  "  I  (the  prolog  speaker)  shall  present  to  you  no  harsh-sovinding  tragedy, 
no  broad  comedy,  but  something  that  has  actually  and  truly  happened." 

°^  For  an  account  of  this  play,  see  Gustav  Bauch,  Dr.  Johann  von  Kits- 
scher,  Neites  Archiv  fiir  S'dchsische  Geschichte  mid  Alterfiimskmide.  1899, 
XX,   286   ff. ;    Creizenach,    Geschichte,   II,    34. 

**A11  known  extant  neo-Latin  tragicomedies  up  to  1582  may  be  found 
conveniently  listed,  with  data  and  references,  in  the  admirable  Appendix 
of  Dr.  Lancaster's  dissertation,  p.  155  ff.  The  number  and  importance  of 
such  plays  after  that  date  are  negligible. 


22 

Verardi's  "  Ferdinandus  Servatus."  The  medieval  religious 
presentations  underwent  a  radical  modification  in  the  hands 
of  men  who  were  versed  in  Plautus  and  Terence.  Before  the 
keener  sense  of  dramatic  value  that  the  classical  drama  aroused, 
the  vast  cycles  of  Biblical  story  gave  way  to  presentations  of, 
parables  from  the  New  Testament,  or  of  the  more  dramatic! 
themes  from  Old  Testament  and  Apocryphal  history.  A  divi-,: 
sion  into  acts,  the  introduction  of  the  chorus,  the  versification 
and  style,  and  many  other  characteristics  of  form  and  content, 
further  betoken  the  influence  of  classical  models.  Yet  in  many 
other  respects  the  humanists  were  only  continuing  medieval 
dramatic  traditions.  The  same  Biblical  subject  matter  and 
edifying  Christian  purpose  of  the  miracle  plays  were  the  stock 
elements  of  the  school  drama,  tho  secular  themes  entered  later 
under  the  influence  of  Protestant  controversy.  The  classical 
unities  of  time  and  place  were  generally  totally  disregarded, 
altho  an  occasional  apology  for  the  shortcoming  occurs.^'  And 
popular  admixture  of  comic  characters  and  scenes  in  serious 
material  evinces  an  even  more  noticeable  medieval  point  of 
view  on  the  part  of  the  scholarly  playwrights. 

The  school  dramas,  then,  are  really  only  Latin  versions  of 
medieval  religious  plays,  of  increased  edifying  purpose,  given 
a  veneer  of  classical  form  and  diction.  The  happy  ending  is 
quite  as  prominent  as  in  the  vernacular  miracles  and  moralities, 
for  the  themes  continued  to  be  chosen  with  the  end  in  view  of 
inculcating  moral  teaching;  moreover,  the  classical  models 
during  the  heyday  of  the  school  drama  were  almost  wholly 
the  comic  poets,  Plautus  and  Terence.  Accordingly,  it  is  not 
surprising  that  the  humanists  generally  regarded  their  drama 
as  "  sacred  comedy '' — a  term  often  used  by  them  interchange- 
ably with  tragicomedy.  Apparently  the  latter  name  was  wel- 
comed as  a  happy  classical  label  for  almost  any  play  that  the 
author  so  chose  to  designate,  if  we  judge  from  the  little  uni- 
formity with  which  it  is  applied.  Plays  bearing  the  title  of 
tragiconm-dia,    coina-dia    tragica,    drama    tragicomicnm,     or 

^'  Cp.  the  epistle  dedicatory  of  Grimald's  Cliristiis  Rediz'iz'us,  below,  p.  24. 


23 

drama  comicotragicum,^^  are  most  frequent  among  the  human- 
istic playwrights  of  southwestern  Germany  and  Switzerland, 
altho  the  same  practise  is  evident  wherever  the  neo-Latin 
drama  was  cultivated.  In  Spain  as  early  as  1538,  a  record  of 
the  University  of  Salamanca  shows  that  Latin  tragicomedies 
were  represented  there  along  with  plays  of  Plautus  and  Ter- 
ence as  an  annual  academic  feature.^''  And  a  record  of  the 
University  of  Coimbra  in  Portugal  mentions  a  student  presen- 
tation of  a  Latin  tragicomedy  of  "  Golias  "  in  1550.^°  In  both 
these  countries  vernacular  tragicomedies  considerably  ante- 
date traces  of  the  Latin  type ;  in  England,  however,  tragi- 
comedy first  entered  in  humanistic  form. 

The  "  Christus  Redivivus  "  (1543)  of  Nicholas  Grimald  is 
the  earliest  original  composition  of  the  few  surviving  neo- 
Latin  plays  of  English  humanism,  and  the  only  one  written 
as  a  tragicornedy.^^  The  play  is  typical  of  its  continental  fore- 
bears :  it  presents  a  miracle  play  theme — the  triumph  of  the 
Cross,  allows  the  usual  medieval  admixture  of  the  comic,  and 
has  the  structure  and  style  of  classical  comedy.  The  "  Epis- 
tola  Nvncvpatoria "  renders  the  play  doubly  interesting  for 
our  purpose,  for  here  the  author  takes  occasion  to  explain  the 
title  of  Comccdia  Tragica: 

"  As  to  the  question  how  the  play  itself  may  defend  its  title,  it  is 
evident  that  the  first  act  ends  in  tragic  misery,  but  the  fifth  and  last  is 
turned  to  joy  and  gladness:  thus  there  is  variety  enough,  now  sadness, 
now  joy  is  sown  among  all  other  intermediate  parts. "^- 

^^  It  is  to  be  remembered  that  this  form  of  the  name  does  not  go  back  to 
the  Plautine  source,  but  is  taken  over  from  the  earlier  Greek  comoedo- 
tragccdia.      See  above,  p.  8. 

^' A.  Vidal  y  Diaz,  Memoria  historica  de  la  Universidad  de  Salamanca 
(1869),  p.  94.     See  Creizenach,  Geschichte,  II,  79  n. 

^^  Braga,  Historia  da  Universidade  de  Coimbra  (1892),  I,  559.  See 
Creizenach,  Geschichte,  II,  80. 

^^  Christvs  Redivivvs ,  Comcedia  Tragica^  sacra  et  nana.  Authore 
Nicolao  Grimoaldo.  Coloniae  loan.  Gymnicus  excudebat,  Anno  M.  D. 
XLIII.  Reprinted  by  J.  M.  Hart,  Pub.  Mod.  Lang.  Assn.,  XIV,  no.  3, 
1899.  See  also  Archiv,  CV,  i ;  Shakspere  Jahrbuch,  XXXVII,  277.  From 
the  dedicatory  epistle  it  appears  that  the  play  was  acted  at  Merton  Col- 
lege, Oxford,  about  1539.     Cp.  Chambers,  Medieval  Stage,  II,  450. 

^ "  Quemadmodum    enim    quo    res    ipsa    nomen    tueatur    suum,    primum 


24 

It  is  significant  to  notice  that  Grimald,  tho  a  humanist,  has 
completely  departed  from  the  conception  of  tragicomedy  in 
the  "  Amphitruo  "  by  defending  the  term  from  the  standpoint 
of  the  happy  outcome  of  a  tragic  action.  Yet,  on  the  other 
hand,  both  the  tragicomic  character  of  the  piece  as  well  as  its 
violation  of  the  unities  he  further  excuses  by  quoting  classical 
precedent : 

"  But  if  anyone  wonders  either  that  I  have  compressed  the  history  of 
many  days  and  varying  times  into  one  and  the  same  action,  or  that  a  sad 
and  grievous  beginning  is  given  such  a  happy  outcome :  he  ought  to  under- 
stand that  I  follow  the  author  M.  Accius  Plautus,  whose  '  Captivi ' — not  to 
mention  others — is  fashioned  to  be  acted  while  several  days  intervene,  and 
from  a  sorrowful  beginning  even  passes  into  a  happy  end.""* 

The  only  other  indication  of  the  title  name  attached  to- 
English  neo-Latin  plays  of  this  period  is  furnished  by  an  un- 
dated and  anonymous  manuscript  redaction  of  an  earlier  con- 
tinental production.  This  unprinted  composition  entitled 
"  Sapientia  Solomonis :  Drama  Comicotragicum  "^'^  has  been 
found  to  be  only  a  reworking — with  slight  changes — of  a  play 
of  the  same  title  by  the  Augsburger  Xystus  Betulius,  printed 
at  Bale,  1547.*'^  There  is  no  record  of  a  performance  of  the 
English  piece ;  but  as  the  epilog  contains  a  complimentary 
mention  of  a  Princess  Cecilia,  it  has  been  conjectured  that  the 
play  was  acted  before  Queen  Elizabeth  during  the  visit  of  the 

Actum  Tragico  mcerori  cedere,  quintum  uero  ct  ultimum  iucunditatibus 
adcommodari  et  gaudijs:  ita  quo  uarietas  satietati  occurrat,  cseteris  omni- 
bus intermedijs,  nunc  lugubria,  nunc  festiua  interseri."  Epistola,  p,  ii. 
Cp.  a  similar  apology  in  the  Epistola  of  Petrus  Philicinus's  Comccdia 
Tragica,  qua  inscribitur  Magdolcita  Evangelica  (1544):  "  Et  quia  nescio 
quid  Tragicum  spirare  videtur,  libuit  Tragica  appellare  comoediam,  ut  nomen, 
rei  conveniat." 

"'  "  Ac  si  quis  miretur,  uel  quod  plurium  dierum  historian!  atque  diuersa 
tempora,  in  unam  et  eandem  actionem  coegerim,  uel  quod  funestum  et  per- 
luctuosum  principium,  tam  plausibilem  sortiatur  exitum :  eum  intelligere 
debere,  me  autorem  sequi  M.  Actium  Plautum,  cuius  praeter  alias  Capteiuei 
et  compluribus  interiectis  diebus  agi  fingiitur,  ct  ex  initio  mcesto  in  laetum 
etia  finem  transeunt."     Epistola,  pp.    11-12. 

"Ms.  Brit.  Mus.  No.  20061.     See  Shakspcre  Jahrbiich,  XXXIV,  224. 

"'  The  additions  of  the  English  manuscript  appear  to  lie  chiefly  in  some 
of  the  comic  scenes  and  in  the  chorus.     Ibid.,   323. 


L 


25 

Princess  Cecilia  of  Sweden  at  the  English  court,  1565-66. 
The  prolog,  following  long-standing  humanistic  example,  states 
that  the  play  is  not  a  comedy  but  a  serious  history,  drawn  from 
the  sacred  fount  of  truth. ^''^  The  action  has  little  unity,  repre- 
senting several  episodes  from  the  Biblical  account  of  Solomon ; 
and  the  whole  production  follows  the  usual  formula  for 
humanistic  drama. 

An  analysis  of  all  the  humanistic  Latin  plays  of  the  six- 
teenth century  called  tragicomedies  would  hardly  show  any 
fixed  basis  for  their  classification  as  such.  The  fact  that 
humanists  realized  that  most  of  their  plays  occupied  a  neutral 
position  between  classical  comedy  and  tragedy,  coupled  with  a 
natural  desire  on  their  part  to  give  them  a  name  sanctioned  by 
ancient  precedent,  must  account  for  the  fact  that  many  of 
them  followed  the  initiative  of  Verardi  in  rehabilitating  the 
Plautine  term  tragicomccdia,  or  adopted  the  earlier  Greek 
name  in  drama  comicotragicuin. 

The  position  that  neo-Latin  tragicomedy  occupies  in  the 
development  of  our  subject  is  obvious  enough.  As  humanism 
is  the  connecting  link  uniting  the  contrary  forces  of  classicism 
and  medievalism  in  all  forms  of  literature,  so  humanistic 
tragicomedy  represents  a  fusion  of  the  preparations  for  the 
form  that  have  been  noticed  in  the  ancient  and  medieval 
dramas.  The  humanist  playwrights  revived  the  classical  name 
of  tragicomcedia,  abandoned  its  Plautine  connotation,  and 
established  it  as  a  convenient  and  appropriate  name  to  denote 
the  prevalent  type  of  religious  drama — the  play  of  serious 
theme  and  happy  ending.  It  was  but  a  step  to  extend  the  name 
±0  secular  plays  as  well :  and  its  introduction  in  the  vernacular 
drama  follo\ved  as  a  matter  of  course.  Thus  the  early  prepara- 
tion for  tragicomedy  is  given  its  finishing  touch  by  the  human- 
ist playwrights ;  its  further  development  concerns  the  vernacu- 
lar dramatists  and  critics  that  followed. 

^^  Poetam  non  habemus  comicum 
Hoc  tempore :  Ast  historiam  attulimus  grauem 
E  fonte  veritatis  exhaustam  sacro.     Ibid.,  226. 


CHAPTER    II 
Early  Foreign  Developments 

With  the  several  tributaries  of  Renaissance  tragicomedy 
determined,  the  next  step  in  the  examination  of  the  form  is 
to  scan  its  early  manifestations  in  the  sixteenth  century  dramas 
of  the  continent  that  were  the  first  to  emerge  from  the  tram- 
mels of  the  medieval  stage- in  response  to  the  quickening  touch 
of  humanism.  In  Italy,  Spain  and  France,  tragicomedy  both 
appeared  and  attained  maturity  some  years  before  it  went 
thru  the  corresponding  stages  in  England;  and  its  early  course 
abroad  presents  some  developments  that  must  be  noticed  both 
for  their  general  interest  and  for  their  bearing  on  English 
practise. 

The  present  chapter  does  not,  however,  pretend  to  give  a 
detailed  or  exhaustive  treatment  of  the  foreign  aspects  of 
the  subject.  Tragicomedy  as  a  dramatic  type  leads  an  almost 
negligible  existence  in  the  Renaissance  vernacular  drama  of 
the  sixteenth  century,  and  with  few  exceptions  plays  of  the 
name  are  so  unimportant  as  to  merit  only  passing  notice.  The 
early  course  of  our  subject  abroad  is  of  vital  interest  here 
rather  on  the  side  of  critical  opinion,  particularly  as  repre- 
sented in  the  Guarini  controversy — a  critical  dispute  now 
almost  forgotten  but  embodying  the  most  complete  and  mo- 
mentous discussion  of  the  theory  and  legitimacy  of  tragi- 
comedy in  the  whole  history  of  the  species.  The  following 
pages,  therefore,  are  intended  only  to  outline  in  brief  the  main 
facts  connected  with  the  rise  and  growth  of  tragicomedy  in 
Italy,  Spain  and  France  during  the  sixteenth  and  early  sev- 
enteenth centuries,  with  particular  notice,  however,  of  the 
Guarini  discussion,  and  some  attention  to  any  other  aspects  of 
dramatic  theory  or  practise  of  direct  or  related  interest  to  the 
subject.  In  presenting  this  material  no  strict  chronology'  is 
possible,    as    tragicomedy    attains    eminence    almost    simulta- 

26 


27 

neonsly  in  all  three  countries.  Yet  Italy,  as  the  fountain-head 
of  the  Renaissance,  perhaps  deserves  first  consideration,  and 
then  Spain  and  France  in  the  order  named. 

(i)    Italy 

For  our  purpose  the  main  interest  associated  with  tragicom- 
edy in  the  early  Italian  vernacular  drama  is  pretty  well  re-^ 
stricted  to  the  field  of  critical  theory.  The  first  few  scattered 
plays  to  be  printed  under  the  title  are  hardly  important  except 
as  they  mark  the  initial  attempts  to  introduce  the  name  on 
the  popular  stage.  Antonio  Marsi's  celebrated  "  Cecaria,"  a 
pastoral  dialog  which  appeared  as  a  tragicomedy  in  the  edition 
of  1530,  represents  the  earliest  recorded  instance  of  the  sort, 
and  has  some  interest  in  connexion  with  the  later  full-fledged 
tragicommcdia  pastorale  of  Guarini.  The  half  dozen  later 
pieces  of  the  title  name  that  cluster  about  the  middle  of  the 
century  have  no  particular  claim  to  distinction.  All  appear  to 
treat  secular  themes  and  to  use  the  title  term  without  explana- 
tion or  apology,  but  otherwise  have  little  in  commOn.  If  ever 
acted,  they  were  performed  sporadically  and  by  amateurs  only ; 
for  it  must  be  remembered  that  the  Italian  drama  of  this  pe- 
riod was  almost  wholly  academic,  having  little  relation  to  the 
existing  theater.  At  all  events,  as  a  factor  in  the  development 
of  a  type  form  or  in  the  formation  of  a  critical  theory  of  tragi- 
comedy, these  plays  may  be  dismissed  as  negligible.^  The 
first  indications  of  a  critical  interest  in  the  new  species, 
strangely  enough,  are  to  be  found  elsewhere. 

It  apparently  is  in  connection  with  a  professed  comedia, 
the  "  Pescara  "  of  Luca  Contile,  written  in  1541,  that  tragi- 
comedy receives  its  very  earliest  vernacular  interpretation  in 

^  Besides  the  Cecaria,  Dr.  Lancaster  records  the  following  as  the  only 
Italian  plays  printed  as  tragicomedies  before  1582;  for  full  data  and 
references  regarding  them,  see  Appendix  A  of  his  dissertation :  Apollo  e 
Lencotoe,  by  Francesco  Sallustio  Buonguglielmi,  Florence  (n.  d)  ;  Poten- 
tia  d'amore,  by  Gerotheo  di  Magri,  Ferrara,  1552  ;  La"  Cangenia,  by  Beltramo 
Poggi,  Florence,  1561  ;  //  Giudizio  di  Paride,  by  Gio.  Maria  Scotto,  Naples, 
1566;  II  Ratio  d'Helena,  by  Anello  Paulilli,  1566;  and  Quintilia,  by  Dio- 
misso  Guazzoni,  Mantua,  1567. 


28 

Italy.-  In  the  prolog  of  this  obscure  production — whose  his- 
torical importance  in  critical  theory  has  generally  escaped  at- 
tention— the  author  boldly  maintains  the  right  of  his  comcdia 
to  the  title  invented  by  Plautus  in  the  ''  Amphitruo,"  and  in 
support  of  this  claim  ofifers  the  following  new  and  original 
definition  of  the  species: 

"  Tragicomedy,  whereas  in  the  beginning  its  actions  are  gentle,  in  the 
middle  contains  various  sufferings  and  divers  misfortunes,  and  in  the  end 
must  subside  into  a  general  and  complete  repose." ' 

This  interpretation  of  tragicomedy,  tho  professedly  based 
on  Plautus,  seems  rather  a  conglomerate  of  the  prevailing 
medieval  notions  of  tragedy  and  comedy,  which  allotted  to  the 
former  a  tranquil  beginning  leading  up  to  a  tumultuous  end 
and  reversed  the  order  in  the  case  of  the  latter.*  At  any  rate, 
it  is  strikingly  independent  of  the  limitations  imposed  on  the 
term  by  the  classical  playwright.  To  Contile  it  is  not  the 
mingling  of  characters  that  constitutes  a  tragicomedy,  but  a 
mingled  action  crowned  with  a  happy  ending;  and  to  this 
scheme  the  play  itself  conforms.  An  incident  from  contem- 
porary Roman  life  furnishes  a  number  of  complications,  which 
dissolve  at  the  end  in  a  series  of  marriages.^  But  the  impor- 
tant thing  to  note  is  the  fact  that  the  first  working  definition 
of  tragicomedy  in  connexion  with  vernacular  drama  departs 
completely  from  classical  precedent  and  emphasizes  the  very 
features  that  later  characterize  the  type. 

Yet  Contile,  if  the  first,  was  not  the  only  early  expositor  of 
a  non-classical  theory  of  tragicomedy.     Two  years  later,   in 

-First  printed  in  1550,  at  Milan,  as  La  Comedia  del  Contile  chiamata 
la  Pescara.  The  play,  we  learn,  was  originally  called  Amicizia.  See  Fon- 
tanini,  Bibliotcca  deU'Eloquenza  Italiana  (1753),  I,  374. 

^ "  La  tragicomedia,  come  nel  principio  ha  gli  atti  siioi  tranquilli,  nel 
mezzo  contiene  varie  passioni,  e  diversi  accidenti,  nel  fin  bisogna  che  si 
riduca  a  una  comune  e  salda  quiete." 

*  For  the  ideas  of  tragedy  and  comedy  that  prevailed  thru  the  middle 
ages,  see  W.  Cloetta,  Beitrdge  zxir  Littcvaturgcschichtc  des  Mittclaltcrs 
und  der  Renaissance,   Halle    (1890),  v.   I. 

°  For  full  account  of  this  play,  see  Abd-El-Kader  Salza,  Luca  Contile 
Uomo  di  Lettere  e  di  Negozj  del  Secolo  XVI,  Firenze  (1903),  p.  133  ff. 
Cp.  also,  Walker,  Revival  of  the  Drama  in  Italy  (1805),  p.  54  n. 


29 

1543'  we  find  much  the  same  interpretation  put  upon  the  term 
by  the  far  more  important  Hterary  figure,  Giraldi  Cinthio ;  and 
this  time  in  connexion  with  a  tragedia.  In  the  prolog  to  this 
author's  third  play,  the  "  Altile,"  occurs  the  following  signifi- 
cant passage : 

"  If  in  some  respects  the  author  has  wished  ...  to  depart  from  ancient 
usage,  ...  he  has  considered  that  this  age  requires  it,  in  addition  to  the 
novelty  of  the  tragedy  just  now  born.  But  it  seems  to  me  that  many  of 
you  have  frowned  at  the  mere  name  of  tragedy,  as  if  you  had  nothing 
to  see  but  tears.  But  be  content,  for  that  which  is  to  take  place  here 
today  will  have  a  happy  ending :  since  tragedy  does  not  carry  with  it  so 
sad  an  augury  that  the  outcome  may  not  yet  be  fortunate.  Such  is  the 
'  Ion '  of  Euripides,  and  the  '  Orestes,'  '  Helen,'  'Alcestis,'  together  with 
the  '  Iphigenia '  and  many  others  which  I  pass  by  in  silence.  But  if 
indeed  you  are  displeased  that  this  has  the  name  of  tragedy,  if  you  like 
you  may  call  it  a  tragicomedy  (since  our  language  uses  such  a  term), 
from  the  ending  in  which  it  has  conformed  to  comedy — after  sorrows,  full 
of  joy."" 

'^  Se  in  qualche  parte  egli    (I'Autore)    ha  voluta 
.  .  .  uscir  dall'uso  antico, 

>}::}:  ^  ^  %  :)<  :(: 

Stimato  egli  ha  che  quest'eta  il  ricerchi, 

Oltre  la  novita  della  Tragedia 

Pur  teste  nata.     Ma  veder  mi  pare 

Che  di  voi  molti   hanno   turbato   il   ciglio 

Al  nome  sol  de  la  Tragedia,  come 

Non  aveste  a  vedere  altro  che  pianto. 

Ma  state  lieti,  ch'avera  fin  lieto 

Quel  ch'oggi   qui  averra  :   che  cosi  triste 

Augurio  non  ha  seco  la  Tragedia 

Ch'esser  non  possa  ancor  felice  il  fine. 

Tal'  e  VIone  de  Euripide  e  VOreste 

Helena,  Alcesti  con  VIphigenia 

Ed  alcune  altre  che  tacendo  io  passo. 

Ma  se  pur  vi  spiacesse  ch'ella  nome 

Avesse  di  Tragedia,  a  placer  vostro 

La  potete  chiamar  tragicommedia 

(Poi  ch'usa  nome  tal  la  nostra  lingua) 

Dal  fin  ch'ella  ha  conforme  alia  commedia, 

Dopo  travagli,  d'allegrezza  pieno. 

'  Cp.  Giraldi's  earlier  complaint,  "  Pure  tragedy  is  not  only  disesteemed, 
but  its  very  name  is  hateful  to  many."  See  La  Tragedia  a  chi  legge, 
appended  to  the  Orbecche  (1541). 


30 

So,  due  to  popular  distaste  for  bloody  catastrophes,'  Giraldi 
offers  a  kind  of  tragedy  that  ends  happily,  and  which,  for 
this  reason,  he  suggests  may  be  called  a  tragicomedy,  a  term 
already  introduced  into  the  vernacular.  Doubtless,  however, 
he  himself  regarded  this  use  of  the  word  as  a  questionable 
innovation — for  apparently  the  name  was  as  yet  in  no  great 
favor  or  usage;*  but  the  legitimacy  of  the  happy  ending 
admitted  of  no  doubt,  for  did  not  the  example  of  Euripides 
confirm  it  ?  Yet,  even  with  this  apologetic  deference  to  ancient 
authority,  elsewhere  in  the  same  prolog,  Giraldi  vigorously 
affirms  the  right  of  every  poet  to  get  away  from  the  precepts, 
rules  and  examples  of  classical  precedent,  and  be  ruled  by 
the  conditions  of  his  own  age  and  the  demands  of  his  audience. 
Thus,  the  prolog  is  interesting  not  only  as  introducing  the  ques- 
tion of  "  tragedies  of  happy  ending "  and  suggesting  their 
identification  with  tragicomedies,  but  also  as  containing  traces 
of  a  new  or  romantic  criticism,  which — without  attempting  to 
detract  from  the  authority  of  the  ancients — realized  that  some 
concession  should  be  made  to  popular  taste  and  the  present 
era;  and  in  this  respect  it  anticipates  the  attitude  of  all  later 
criticism  in  support  of  tragicomedy. 

Evidently  the  dramatic  innovation  introduced  by  the  "  Al- 
tile "  found  favor.  Of  Giraldi's  six  subsequent  tragedies, 
written  between  1543  and  1562,  five  are  similarly  distinguished 
by  the  happy  ending,  two  of  which,  the  "  Epitia  "  and  '*  Arre- 
nopia,"  have  an  especial  interest  in  their  contact  with  Eliza- 
bethan tragicomedy.''  One  characterization  satisfies  for  the 
group.  All  represent  a  neo-classic  handling  of  romantic  stories 
taken  from  the  author's  "  Hecatommithi."  Tho  modeled  in 
form  and  structure  on  Senecan  and  Greek  tragedy,  they  antici- 
pate the  drain e  libre  in  subject  matter,  in  mingling  tragic  and 

*  Contile  had  declared  that  the  people  considered  tragicomedy  ridiculous  ; 
and  the  anonymous  critic  of  Speroni,  in  his  Giudicio  sopra  la  Tragcdia  di 
Canace  e  Macareo  (1543),  asserted  that  "this  name  of  tragicomedy,  intro- 
duced by  Plautus  among  the  Latins,  is  not  much  approved  by  the  learned." 
Opere  di  Speroni  (1740),  IV,  72. 

"  The  same  stories  of  these  two  plays  are  dramatized  respectively  in 
Whetstone's  Promos  and  Cassandra  and  Greene's  James  IV.  See  below, 
pp.  66,  80. 


31 

comic,  in  disregard  of  the  unities  of  time  and  place,  in  the 
number  and  variety  of  the  characters,  in  a  rough  and  unpol- 
ished style,  and  above  all  in  the  innovation  of  a  happy  ending. 
All  have  themes  involving  plenty  of  action,  romantic  adven- 
tures, and  tragic  possibilities  but  no  tragic  catastrophes.  Im- 
pending dangers  are  removed  by  some  timely  change  of  for- 
tune: a  favorite  device  is  the  return  to  life  of  the  supposed 
dead ;  threatened  executions  are  stayed  by  fortunate  recogni- 
tions ;  and  other  tragicomic  devices  abound.  A  villain  may 
suffer  a  deserved  death ;  but  for  the  virtuous  the  play  ends  in 
a  general  satisfaction. 

The  dramatic  theory  by  which  Giraldi  defended  this  kind 
of  tragedy  is  set  forth  at  some  length  in  one  of  his  critical 
"Discorsi"  (1554),^°  the  group  of  treatises  so  significant  as 
marking  the  virtual  beginnings  of  modern  criticism.  Here, 
as  in  the  prolog  of  the  "  Altile,"  he  again  grounds  his  dramatic 
innovation  in  ancient  theory  and  practise.  The  tragcdia  di 
lieto  fin  is  the  same  type  of  tragedy  described  by  Aristotle  as 
mixed, ^^  and  recognized  by  him  as  the  most  pleasing  to  the 
spectators,  and  in  which  he  has  placed  that  most  effective 
agnition,  whereby  fortune  changes  from  misery  to  happiness 
and  the  characters  are  saved  from  death.  Thus  horror  and 
compassion,  the  sustaining  and  necessary  elements  of  all 
tragedy,  are  duly  aroused,  but  tempered  and  rendered  no  less 
effective  by  the  happy  ending,  which  is  both  Aristotelian  and 
more  agreeable  to  popular  taste.  And  notwithstanding  that 
Seneca,  the  model  of  tragic  art,  has  never  attempted  the 
tragedy  of  happy  ending,  he,  Giraldi,  has  composed  some  of 

^^  Discorso  intorno  al  comporre  delle  Comedie,  et  delle  Tragedia  {Dis- 
corsi,  Venice,  1554,  p.  219  ff,). 

^'  By  a  strange  stretch  of  fact  Giraldi  goes  on  to  identify  this  form 
with  the  tragicomedy  of  Plautus :  "  This  kind  of  Tragedy  (to  which  Aris- 
totle gave  the  name  of  mixed)  Plautus  demonstrates  in  the  Prolog  of  his 
Amphitruo,  when  he  says,  that  in  it  lowly  persons  are  mingled  with  the 
great  and  royal."  He  may  have  taken  this  idea  from  a  similar  opinion  in  the 
anonjrmous  Giudicio  sopra  la  Tragedia  di  Canace  e  Macareo  (1543),  where 
there  is  a  reference  to  the  mixed  type  of  tragedy  as  "  that  which  Aristotle 
well  explains  in  his  Poetics,  and  Plautus  in  the  prolog  of  his  Amphitruo." 
See   Opere  di  Speroni   (1740),   IV,   72. 


32 

the  kind — as  the  "  Altile,"  the  "  Selene,"  the  "  Antivalomeni," 
and  others — but  only,  he  hastens  to  add,  "  to  please  the  spec- 
tators, and  to  be  more  attractive  on  the  stage,  and  to  conform 
more  to  the  usage  of  our  times."  As  final  stipulations  for  the 
form,  he  urges  that  the  poet  should  so  conduct  the  events  of 
the  play  that  the  spectators  be  held  suspended  between  horror 
and  compassion  clear  to  the  close,  and  be  allowed  no  intimation 
of  the  outcome;  and  moreover,  that  justice  be  equally  distri- 
buted in  the  end,  and  the  wicked  expiate  their  crimes  in  death. 

Thus  Giraldi  defends  and  explains  his  innovation  of  a 
"  tragedy  of  happy  ending,"  a  form  which  in  every  essential 
— romantic  plot,  thrilling  adventure,  suspense  and  surprise, 
happy  denouement — is  the  most  direct  precursor  of  later  tragi- 
comedy that  the  early  Italian  drama  affords.  Yet  he  appar- 
ently was  too  much  of  a  classicist  to  view  his  invention  in  any 
other  light  than  that  of  the  second  kind  of  tragedy  recognized 
by  Aristotle  and  cultivated  by  Euripides,  tho  admitting  that 
the  "Altile"  may  be  called  a  tragicouuncdia  by  such  as  deny 
it  the  title  of  tragedy.  Yet  Giraldi  is  the  most  important 
figure  in  the  history  of  tragicomedy  before  Guarini.  In  his 
expressed  independence  of  the  ancients,  deference  to  popular 
taste,  and  appreciation  of  the  theatrical  value  of  suspended 
action  and  happy  denouement,  he  is  far  in  advance  of  his 
time ;  while  in  his  invention  of  a  tragcdia  di  lieto  fin,  he  is  the 
founder  and  first  defender  of  a  type  of  play  heralding  the 
romantic  drama  and  differing  from  tragicomedy  in  name  alone. 

For  our  purpose,  the  historical  bearing  of  the  tragcdia  di 
lieto  fin  on  tragicomedy  is  practically  confined  to  Giraldi.  In 
regard  to  the  future  of  the  species,  suffice  it  to  add  that  the 
new  kind  promptly  found  its  cultivators  and  detractors,  and 
was  the  subject  of  at  least  one  of  the  literary  controversies 
that  were  the  order  of  the  day  in  Italy  during  the  latter  part 
of  the  sixteenth  century.  Following  the  appearance  of  the 
"  Cresfonte  "  (1588),  a  play  of  the  type  by  Liviera,  appeared 
a  complete  excommunication  of  the  lieto  fin  in  a  "  Dis- 
corso "  (1590)  of  the  learned  Faustino  Summo,  later  an 
opponent  of  Guarini.  This  was  follow^ed  by  two  pamphlets 
from   Liviera    in   defense   of   the   happy  ending   and   another 


33 

attack  by  Faustino,  all  in  the  same  year.^-  Even  in  the  next 
century  the  "  tragedy  of  happy  ending  "  was  a  disputed  prac- 
tise, and  playwrights  who  cultivated  it  seldom  failed  to  cite  the 
authority  of  Aristotle  in  its  support.^^  Moreover,  unlike 
Giraldi,  they  jealously  guarded  the  claim  of  their  productions* 
to  the  title  of  tragedy,  protesting  against  the  vulgar  opinion 
that  dubbed  them  tragicomedies  on  account  of  the  happy  end- 
ing.^^  But  the  growing  popularity  in  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury of  the  name  tragicomedy  soon  prevailed  over  such  pro- 
tests, and  tragedia  di  lieto  fin  became  one  in  name  as  well 
as  in  all  else  with  tragicommedia}^  This  brings  us  to  the 
second  and  much  more  important  Italian  influence  in  the  his- 
tory of  tragicomedy,  that  associated  with  Battista  Guarini  and 
his  famous  "  Pastor  Fido." 

The  "  Pastor  Fido "  itself  is  only  incidentally  important 
here ;  as  a  play,  its  place  is  rather  in  the  development  of  the 
pastoral,  notwithstanding  the  author's  claim  that  it  was  first 
and  last  a  tragicommcdia  and  only  secondarily  a  pastorale}^ 
For  us,  its  chief  significance  lies  in  the  fact  that  it  gave  rise 
to  a  notable  critical  controversy  over  the  question  of  the 
legitimacy  of  tragicomedy — a  dispute  that  raged  among  the 
learned  sophists  of  Italy  for  years  following  the  play  and  even 
aroused  echoes  abroad,  but  which  is  now  relegated  to  a  for- 
gotten niche  in  literary  history  as  the  Guarini  controversy.^'^ 

^"  See  Angiolgabriello  di  Santa  Maria,  Bibliotcca,  e  Storia,  Venice  (1772- 
1782),  V,  206  ff. 

^^  Cp.  Giov.  Ondedei,  Asmondo  (1615)  ;  Francesco  Contarini,  Isaccio 
(1615). 

"For  example,  see  the  Dedication  to  Giulio  Strozzi's  Erotilla  (1615), 
in  which  the  author  claims  for  his  play  the  title  of  tragedy  in  spite  of 
the  happy  ending,  adding,  "  I  do  not  wish  that  others  christen  it  a  tragi- 
commedia,  because  that  would  show  a  misunderstanding  of  the  meaning 
of  the  word,  and  ignorance  of  the  sense  in  which  the  ancients  have 
used  it." 

^°  For  the  general  subject  of  the  tragedia  di  lieto  fin  in  Italy,  see  E. 
Bertana,  La  Tragedia  (Storia  dei  Generi  Letterari  Italiani),  Milan,  1906, 
p.  43  ff.  ^°  Below,  p.  39. 

"  A  good  account  of  this  controversy  is  given  by  Rossi,  Battista  Guarini 
ed  II  Pastor  Fido  (1886),  pp.  238-252.  Cp.  also,  W.  W.  Greg,  Pastoral 
Poetry  and  Pastoral  Drama  (1906),  p.  206  ff . ;  Marsan,  La  Pastorale 
Dramatiqite   en   France    (1905),   pp.    58-66. 


34 

Yet  before  considering  this  important  chapter  in  the  critical 
history  of  our  subject,  it  will  be  necessary  to  review  briefly  the 
main  facts  concerning  the  author  and  the  play  to  grasp  the 
situation  in  full. 

In  final  form  the  "  Pastor  Fido  "  represented  nine  years  of 
painstaking  labor  on  the  part  of  its  author,  Battista  Guarini. 
Its  inception  dates  from  1580  or  1581,  the  result  no  doubt  of 
a  cherished  ambition  of  the  author  to  produce  a  play  that  might 
rival  in  popularity  the  "  Aminta  "  (1573)  of  Tasso.  In  1585 
the  play  probably  first  became  known  in  manuscript,  in  which 
form  it  circulated  for  criticism  among  the  author's  friends  and 
patrons  several  years  before  it  saw  the  light  in  print.  A  num- 
ber of  times  during  this  period,  it  seems,  plans  for  presenting 
the  piece  were  formed  but  came  to  naught ;  until  at  length  the 
play  was  printed  at  Venice,  December,  1589,^^  and  its  popu- 
larity both  as  a  poem  and  a  stage  play  followed  at  once.  •  The 
play  itself  sets  forth  a  most  ingeniously  constructed  plot, 
marred,  however,  by  the  interminable  length  of  the  action — 
nearly  7,000  lines,  and  an  almost  total  lack  of  dramatic  feeling. 
The  story,  founded  on  Greek  romance,  is  a  combination  of  ma- 
terials and  motives  from  a  multitude  of  sources ;  the  whole 
given  the  Arcadian  setting,  and  bringing  into  play  the  usual 
pastoral  machinery  of  love-chain,  by-plot,  balanced  characters, 
and  the  other  devices  characteristic  of  the  type.  The  plot, 
made  intricate  and  complex  by  the  various  crossed  love  diffi- 
culties and  the  mistakes  arising  therefrom,  brings  the  fortunes 
of  the  dififerent  characters  into  hopeless  entanglement  during 
the  course  of  the  action.  The  underlying  motive  has  to  do 
with  the  fulfilment  of  an  oracle,  which  has  declared  that  only 
can  Arcadia  be  freed  from  a  cruel  tribute  annually  imposed  by 
Diana  when  "two  of  divine  race  shall  join  in  love,  and  the 
noble  piety  of  a  faithful  shepherd  make  amends  for  the  evil 
of  a  faithless  woman. "^'^    In  the  course  of  the  story  the  beauti- 

"This  first  edition  is  dated,  however,   1590. 

"  Non  havra  prima  fin  quel,  che  v'offende, 
Che  duo  semi  del  Ciel  coniunga  Amore, 
E  di  donna  infedel  I'antico  errore 
L'alta  pieta  d'un  Pastor  Fido  ammende.      Act  I,  sc.  2. 


35 

fill  and  noble  nymph  Amarilli  is  wrongfully  accused  of  having 
violated  her  faith,  and  accordingly  she  is  the  victim  chosen  to 
fulfil  the  oracle.  But  the  faithful  shepherd,  Mirtillo,  who  loves 
her,  hopelessly — as  he  thinks,  offers  to  die  in  her  stead  and  is 
accepted.  He  is  about  to  be  sacrificed,  when — by  a  happy 
discovery — it  is  learned  that  he  is  not. an  humble  shepherd  as 
supposed,  but  a  lost  son  of  the  high  priest  Montano  and  there- 
fore of  the  race  of  Alcides.  Accordingly,  the  conditions  of 
the  oracle  are  already  fulfiled  in  the  mutual  love  between  him 
and  Amarilli — as  both  are  of  divine  descent — and  in  his  offer 
to  die  in  her  place.  Arcadia  is  now  freed  from  her  tribute, 
and  a  happy  end  crowns  the  fortunes  of  the  lovers. 

Such  a  brief  description  of  the  "  Pastor  Fido "  can  give 
little  idea  of  the  play  as  a  whole,  but  may  indicate  something 
of  its  position  as  intermediate  drama,  on  which  Guarini  based 
his  defense  of  the  title  tragicommedia,  and  about  which  the 
chief  force  of  the  dispute  waged. 

Even  before  the  "  Pastor  Fido  "  appeared  in  print,  it  was 
made  the  object  of  attack.  As  early  as  1587,  a  certain  Paduan 
professor  of  moral  philosophy,  Giasone  de  Nores,  published 
a  "  Discorso,"-"  setting  forth  the  dependence  of  all  poetry  on 
moral  and  civil  philosophy  and  the  government  of  the  state, 
and  in  which,  without  making  direct  allusion,  he  took  occasion 
to  pay  his  respects  to  the  preposterous  nature  of  tragicomedy, 
which  he  characterized  as  a  "  monstrous  and  disproportionate 
composition,"  mixed  of  two  contrary  elements,  unmentioned 
by  Aristotle  or  any  other  renowned  ancient,  and  not  even 
defendable  by  the  example  of  Plautus,  who  composed  a  tragi- 
comedy ;  "  he  having  never  been  esteemed  for  the  observation 
of  art,  but  only  for  the  propriety  of  the  Latin  tongue."  And 
as  to  the  pastoral,  that  was  a  form  "  contrary  to  the  prin- 
ciples of  moral  and  civil  philosophy  and  the  government  of  the 
Republic,  so  well  founded  for  the  public  good."  Such  being 
evident,  "  What  consideration,"  he  concluded,  "  ought  one  to 

'"  Discorso  Di  Jason  Dcnores  intorno  a  que'  principi  cause,  ed  accresci- 
menti  die  La  Commedia,  La  Tragedia,  ed  II  Poema  Eroico  ricevono  dalla 
filosofia  morale  e  civile,  e  da  Governatori  delle  Reppubbliche  (Padova, 
1587).     See  Guarini,  Opere  (Verona,  i737),  H,  149-208. 


36 

have  for  that  third  kind  of  poetry  which  is  called  Tragicom- 
media  pastorale f" 

Guarini,  who  proudly  boasted  to  be  the  inventor  of  the 
tragicommcdia  pastorale,  and  the  author  of  the  only  one  ever 
written  since  the  beginning  of  time,  accepted  De  Nores'  criti- 
cism as  a  direct  attack  on  the  "Pastor  Fido  "  and  jealously 
arose  in  defense.  The  following  year,  1588,  under  the  pseu- 
donym of  //  Verato,  a  noted  comic  actor  of  the  time,  he 
launched  a  diatribe  against  the  Paduan  sophist,  taking  up  his 
arguments  in  turn  and  refuting  them  with  much  virulence.-^ 
Aristotle  indeed  may  not  have  mentioned  tragicomedy,  but 
does  he  mention  the  poems  of  Dante  or  Ariosto?  And  if  none 
of  the  other  ancients  have  spoken  of  the  form,  have  any,  on 
the  other  hand,  ever  blamed  it  ?  Moreover,  tragicomedy  under 
other  names  was  practised  by  both  Greeks  and  Latins.  The 
tragedia  di  liefo  fin  was  used  by  Euripides  and  Sophocles 
and  approved  by  the  authority  of  Aristotle.  Again,  witness 
the  Hilaro-traga-dia  of  Rhinthon,  and  the  early  satyric  drama 
which  Aristotle  mentions  and  Horace  describes.  Were  they 
not  mixtures  of  tragic  and  comic,  and  practised  by  the  an- 
cients? How,  then,  can  the  mixture  of  tragicomedy  be  dis- 
proportionate and  without  art?  And  as  to  the  name  tragi- 
commedia,  Plautus — whom  you  call  a  poetaster,  but  who  has 
lived  for  sixteen  hundred  years  while  you  were  born  yesterday 
— has  introduced  it,  and  why  should  not  others  be  permitted 
to  use  it?  Or,  if  you  prefer,  you  may  call  it  Tragedia  lieta  or 
Commedia  grave. 

Thus  Guarini  disposed  of  the  objections  raised  against  the 
irregularity  of  the  form.  But  he  devoted  more  attention  to 
assailing  the  charge  of  his  opponent  that  tragicomedy  was  a 
double  favole,  made  up  of  two  separate  and  contrary  elements, 
tragedy  and  comedy.  With  painstaking  care  the  nature  of  the 
piece  is  explained  in  detail.  Such  a  composition  as  De  Nores 
describes  would  be  blamable.  But  tragicomedy  is  not  a  com- 
posite of  pure  tragedy  and  pure  comedy.     It  is  a  third  type, 

-^11  Vcrrato  ovvero  Difesa  Di  quanto  ha  scritto  Mcsser  Jason  Denores. 
Contra  le  tragicommedie,  e  le  pastorali,  in  un  sua  Discorso  Di  Poesia 
(Ferrara,  1588).      Guarini,  Opere,  II,  209-308. 


37 

combining  the  parts  of  each  that  can  stand  together,  uniting 
the  elements  they  have  in  common:  "From  the  one  it  takes 
the  noble  characters,  not  the  action,  the  story,  probable  but 
invented,  the  emotions,  stirred  but  tempered,  the  delight,  not 
the  sadness,  the  danger,  not  the  death ;  from  the  other,  the 
decorous  mirth,  the  sober  gentleness,  the  invented  plot,  the 
happy  change,  and  above  all  the  comic  order."  Such  is  the 
tragicomedy  of  Guarini — the  imitation  of  a  fictitious  action, 
mixed  with  all  those  tragic  and  comic  parts  that  can  properly 
stand  together  in  a  single  dramatic  form,  and  in  which  the 
terror  of  tragedy  is  alleviated  by  reducing  it  only  to  the  danger 
of  death,  and  the  whole  tempered  with  the  urbanity  of  comedy. 
Moreover,  he  asserts  that  "  Poetry  does  not  depend  on  sophis- 
try and  rhetoric ;  its  scope  is  to  delight,  not  to  instruct."  In 
short,  tragicomedy  is  not  open  to  any  of  the  strictures  of  De 
Nores,  but,  on  the  contrary,  it  is  proved  to  be  a  form  of  poetry 
"noble,  ancient,  simple,  proportionate,  and  capable  of  every 
artifice  belonging  to  a  well-woven  composition." 

To  this  reply,  the  Paduan  professor  published  an  "  Apo- 
logia"  (1590),--  in  which  Guarini's  arguments  are  dissected 
in  turn,  ridiculed  as  absurd,  and  the  acrimony  of  the  contro- 
versy increased  by  the  counter-exchange  of  sarcastic  person- 
alities. The  pamphlet  is  typical  of  the  casuistical  quibbling  of 
the  day.  Much  of  the  argument  is  given  over  to  discrediting 
the  possibility  of  lessening  the  tragic  terror  until  only  the 
danger  of  death  remains.  Such  a  proposition  is  a  paradox  ; 
for  "  How,"  he  asks,  "  can  there  be  danger  of  death  unless 
there  be  terror?"  Plautus  admits  neither  danger  nor  death 
in  the  "Amphitruo."  Either,  then,  the  Plautine  play  is  not  a 
tragicomedy,  or  //  Verato  does  not  understand  that  form  of 
poetry.  That  tragicomedy  is  an  ancient  poem  is  equally  false. 
The  "  Cyclops "  of  Euripides  is  not  a  tragicomedy,  as  that 
contradicts  the  title  its  author  gave  it  ;  and  as  to  the  Hilaro- 
traga:di(c  of  Rhinthon  and  the  satyric  tragedies  of  Pratinas, 
they  may  be  rejected  as  capricious  compositions  without  art 

^Apologia  contro  I'Autor  del  Verato,  di  Giasone  de  Nores,  di  quanta 
ha  egli  detto  in  un  suo  discorso  delle  Tragiconimedie  et  delle  pastorali 
(Padova,   1590).      Guarini,  Opere,  II,   309-375. 


38 

and  contrary  to  nature.  To  the  authors  of  such  monstrous 
compositions  as  tragicomedies,  the  words  of  Cicero  alone 
ought  to  sufifice,  "'turpe  comicum  in  tragoedia,  et  turpe  tragicum 

in  comocdia.'; ."  Let  us  be  content,"   he  urges,  "  with  being 

now  comic,  now  tragic,  and  not  wish  to  be  both  at  once,  and 
in  one  turn  of  the  sun." 

The  counterblast  from  Guarini  appeared  as  "  II  Verato 
Secondo  "  (i593)-"^  In  spite  of  the  fact  that  De  Norcs  had 
died  in  the  interim,  Guarini  devoted  a  great  part  of  this  second 
pamphlet  to  scurrilous  abuse  of  his  late  opponent,  mingled 
with  much  petty  cavilling  over  the  personal  side  of  the  con- 
troversy. The  object  of  the  author  is  set  forth  under  the 
four  headings  into  which  the  work  is  divided  :  viz,  (i)  to 
declare  the  cheat  of  the  sophistical  apologist  ;  (2)  to  defend 
the  modesty  of  //  Verato  against  the  immodesty  of  De  Nores  ; 
(3)  to  prove  that  the  poem  defended  by  //  Verato  is  well 
defended  and  ill  accused  ;  (4)  to  prove  that  the  poem  mixed 
of  tragic  and  comic  parts,  called  by  the  author  of  the  "  Pastor 
Fido "  a  tragicomedy,  is  a  legitimate  poem  of  Aristotle. 
With  the  first  two  divisions  we  are  not  concerned.  In  the 
third,  Guarini  repeats  his  former  arguments  with  much  reiter- 
ation and  some  elaboration.  In  defense  of  the  blending  of 
tragic  and  comic  elements  he  cites  examples  of  the  mingling  of 
contraries  in  natural  and  physical  phenomena.  Heat  and  cold, 
dry  and  moist,  unite  in  medial  resultants.  From  the  horse 
and '  the  ass  comes  the  mule  ;  from  pewter  and  copper, 
bronze ;  from  sulphur  and  saltpeter,  powder.  The  same  is 
true  in  the  arts  related  to  poetry  ;  in  painting,  two  colors  are 
united  to  form  a  third  ;  in  music,  diatonic  is  mixed  with 
chromatic,  and  chromatic  with  harmonic.  The  Republic  it- 
self is  a  mean  between  oligarchy  and  democracy.  And  just 
as  from  such  mixtures  results  a  third  which  is  different  from 
its  component  parts,  so  tragicomedy  is  the  issue  of  two  con- 
trary elements  and  yet  is  apart  from  either.     From  beginning 

-' //  Verato  Secondo  ovvero  replica  Dell  Attizzato  accademico  Ferrarese 
in  difcsa  del  Pastor  Fido,  contra  la  seconda  scrittura  di  Messer  Jason  de 
Nores  intitolata  Apologia  (Firenze,  1593 — really  1592).  Guarini,  Opere, 
III,  1-384. 


39 

to  end  it  is  always  a  mixed  composition,  and  therefore  is  not 
liable  to  the  censure  imposed  by  Horace  on  poetry  which 
begins  in  one  manner  and  ends  in  another.  The  rarity  of  the 
form  is  only  an  argument  in  its  favor  :  "  Rare  are  the  writers 
of  tragicomedy,  because  rare  are  those  who  know  how  to 
make  it.''  The  true  meaning  of  the  genre  title  is  explained  at 
length.  The  "  Pastor  Fido  "  is  not  a  pastoral,  but  a  pastoral 
tragicomedy  ;  tragicomedy  being  the  noun  signifying  the 
character  of  the  story,  and  pastoral  the  adjective  indicating 
that  the  characters  are  shepherds  and  not  citizens. 

Nor  does  the  "  Pastor  Fido,"  Guarini  concludes,  need  to 
base  its  defense  on  Rhinthon  and  Pratinas,  whose  works  are 
no  longer  extant  ;  its  masters  are  Sophocles  and  Euripides, 
and  its  art  is  based  on  the  "  Poetics  "  of  Aristotle.  This  last 
proposition,  that  tragicomedy  is  Aristotelian,  occupies  the  fifty 
pages  that  make  up  the  fourth  division  of  the  treatise.  The 
proof  of  this  principle,  it  is  maintained,  is  two-fold  :  first, 
tragicomedy  indeed  is  unmentioned  in  the  "  Poetics,"  but  one 
must  concede  that  it  is  made  with  the  same  precepts  of  art. 
the  same  rules  of  nature,  on  which  Aristotelian  philosophy  has 
founded  other  forms  of  poetry  ;  secondly,  it  is  capable  of 
proof  that  tragicomedy  is  so  similar  to  one  of  the  particular 
kinds  mentioned  in  the  "  Poetics  "  that  it  can  rightly  be  called 
a  legitimate  form  of  the  philosopher.  The  latter  argument  is 
upheld  by  showing  the  close  relation  between  the  tragicomedy 
of  Guarini  and  the  tragedy  of  doppia  constitiizione  recog- 
nized by  Aristotle  as  belonging  to  the  second  class.-*  Both 
forms  are  mixed  of  tragic  and  comic  parts,  but  in  different 
ways  :  the  Aristotelian  form  has  a  double  outcome,  tragi- 
comedy a  single  one  ;  in  the  former  both  kinds  of  characters, 
the  megliori  and  the  peggiori,  are  equally  important,  in  the 
latter  the  peggiori  are  only  incidentally  admitted.  And  while 
Aristotle  does  not  call  the  second  kind  of  tragedy  a  tragi- 
comedy, yet  he  has  admitted  the  principle  of  mixture  on 
which  it  is  founded,  wherefore  it  follows  that  the  much  more 
unified  mingling  of  tragic  and  comic  parts  of  the  "  Pastor 
Fido  "  must  be  a  figliuolo  legittimo  of  the  philosopher. 

"*  Above,  p.  3. 


(!t ?'\-:"^      \ 

\  •  TV  if 


40 

Thus  ended  Guarini's  share  in  the  controversy  that  his  play 
had  aroused.  Some  years  later,  1599,  he  combined  the  material 
of  the  two  Verati,  omitting  entirely  the  personal  parts,  into  a 
"  Compendio  della  Poesia  Tragicomica,"  -^  which  appeared 
with  the  final  revision  of  the  text  and  his  own  notes  on  the 
play  in  the  sumptuous  1602  edition.^*' 

The  Guarini  pamphlets  make  up  by  far  the  most  important 
part  of  the  controversy,  which  indeed  had  just  begun.  In 
them  the  author  advances  a  formulated  theory  of  tragicomedy, 
which  he  maintains  is  defendable  on  the  grounds  on  which  it 
is  assailed  —  the  authority  of  the  ancients,  and  also  on  the 
nI  plea  of  art  to  be  free  from  the  limitations  imposed  by  such 
authority.  As  a  champion  of  the  liberty  of  art,  Guarini  oc- 
cupies a  position  similar  to  that  already  noticed  in  the  critical 
utterances  of  Giraldi.  Never  does  he  intimate  a  disregard  for 
the  rules  of  Aristotle  or  attempt  to  underrate  their  value  ;  he 
revolts  only  against  the  limitations  that  their  narrow  applica- 
tion impose  on  the  art  of  poetry.  His  position  is  that  Aristotle 
treated  of  poetry  that  he  found  in  his  own  time,  and  so  long 
as  poetry  is  constructed  according  to  the  universal  laws  of 
imitation  laid  down  in  the  "  Poetics,"  to  demand  that  it  for- 
ever conform  to  the  specific  kinds  described  therein  is  folly. 
Certainly,  he  urges,  no  one  would  condemn  the  "  Divine 
Comedy"  of  Dante,  the  "  Trionfi "  of  Petrarch,  or  the 
"  Orlando "  of  Ariosto,  all  of  which  are  new  poetical  forms 
and  unrecognized  in  Aristotle.  Why,  then,  cannot  other  new 
I  kinds  as  well  be  invented,  so  long  as  they  are  made  according 
to  the  basic  principles  of  art? 

But  Guarini's  eagerness  to  prove  that  tragicomedy  may  be 
defended  if  necessary  by  ancient  precedent  shows  that  he  was 
but  half  a  romanticist.  The  Aristotelian  tragedy  of  double 
ending  practised  by  Euripides  and  Sophocles,  the  ancient 
satyric  drama,  the  Hilaro-tragocdia:  of  Rhinthon,  the  "  Am- 
phitruo  "  of  Plautus  —  all  are  turned  to  account  to  show  the 
legitimacy  of  the  mingling  of  kinds  ;  not  indeed  that  any  of 

==  Opere,   III,   385-469. 

"*  The  Compendio,  altho  finished  by  1599,  was  not  printed  until  1601, 
when  it  appeared  singly.      See  Rossi,  p.  236. 


these  represent  the  artful  and  unified  blend  of  tragic  and 
comic  parts  of  the  "Pastor  Fido"  —  for  that  has  never  been 
paralleled,  but  that  they  prove  that  the  underlying  principle 
is  ancient,  and  not  a  monstrous  invention  of  modern  times. 
His  respect  for  classical  practise  over  modern  is  further  evi- 
denced by  a  total  disregard  of  the  Renaissance  tragicomedies 
antedating  the  "  Pastor  Fido."  While  the  work  of  Dante, 
Petrarch,  Ariosto,  is  cited  to  defend  the  invention  of  a  new 
poetic  form,  any  reference  to  previous  attempts  at  tragi- 
comedy by  moderns  is  carefully  avoided.-^ 

Yet  whatever  Guarini's  position  may  be  among  tne  critics 
of  the  later  Italian  Renaissance,  he  is  primarily  important  for 
our  purpose  as  the  first  expositor  of  a  definite  critical  theory 
in  support  of  modern  tragicomedy.  Briefly  summarized,  his 
idea  of  the  form  seems  to  involve  a  production  which  repre- 
sents in  every  way — in  action,  characters,  incidents,  outcome, 
style — a  tempered  mean  between  the  extremes  of  pure  trag- 
edy and  pure  comedy.  Again  and  again  he  reiterates  that 
"tragicomedy  is  not  a  compound  of  two  favolc,  one  of  which 
is  a  perfect  tragedy  and  the  other  a  perfect  comedy,  nor  is  it 
a  tragical  history  corrupted  with  the  baseness  of  comedy,  nor 
a  comical  tale  contaminated  with  the  deaths  of  tragedy,  but  it 
is  a  mixture  of  those  tragic  and  comic  parts  which  can  stand 
together  with  probability."  -^  With  the  great  spread  and 
popularity  of  the  "  Pastor  Fido  "  this  idea  of  tragicomedy  was 
sown  broadcast,  and  became  part  and  parcel  of  the  dramatic 
theory  of  the  genre  abroad.  Its  appearance  in  England  will 
demand  attention  later. 

The  continuance  of  the  controversy  that  followed  in  the 
wake  of  Guarini's  controversy  with  De  Nores  need  call  for  no 
special  consideration.  It  was  largely  concerned  with  a  re- 
hashing of  the  arguments  pro  and  con  already  advanced,  and 

^  De  Nores,  indeed,  mentions  a  play  by  "  a  certain  Spaniard,  entitled 
Calisto  and  Melibea,"  as  the  only  tragicomedy  known  to  him  other  than 
that  of  Plautus,  but  adds  that  he  does  not  think  that  "  it  is  yet  approved 
by  the  judgment  of  those  who  proportion  poetry  with  reason  and  with  the 
rules  of  Aristotle."      Apologia  (ed.  1590),  p.  29. 

^Cp.  II  Verato  Secondo  (Operc,  III,  167). 


42 

turned  from  the  general  question  of  tragicomedy  to  the  more 
particular  subject  of  the  "  Pastor  Fido  "  itself,  without  adding 
anything  especially  new  or  important  to  what  had  gone  be- 
fore. At  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century,  the 
Paduan  rhetorician,  Faustino  Summo,  devoted  two  of  his 
twelve  "  Discorsi  poetici "  (1600)-^  to  the  questions  of  the 
dispute.  In  one  he  substantiated  De  Nores  in  decrying  tragi- 
comedies and  pastorals  as  illegitimate  poesies  by  the  rules  of 
Aristotle,  and  in  the  other  he  critically  dissected  the  "  Pastor 
Fido  "  scene  for  scene.  The  same  year  saw  the  publication  of 
"  Considerationi  intorno  al  Pastor  Fido,"'^^.  in  which  the  author, 
Giovanni  j\Ialacreta,  advanced  a  series  of  critical  diibbi,  cen- 
suring the  art  and  construction  of  the  piece.  Other  similar 
diihitazioni  were  immediately  added  by  a  Paduan  professor, 
Paolo  Beni,  in  a  "Risposta"  (1600)^^  to  Malacreta.  In  both 
these  pamphlets  the  dispute  turned  entirely  from  the  question 
of  tragicomedy,  and  centered  on  absurd  bickering  over  such 
aspects  of  the  play  itself  as  the  probability  of  the  story,  the 
morality  of  each  scene,  the  characters,  the  length,  the  style, 
and  above  all  the  name  of  the  piece. 

In  the  following  year,  1601,  two  defenses  of  the  play  ap- 
peared. Giovanni  Savio  in  an  "  Apologia  "^-  reiterated  Guar- 
ini's  arguments  with  much  fulsome  eulogy  of  both  the  author 
and  his  production.     This  pamphlet  is  in  three  parts.     In  the 

^  Due  Discorsi,  L'uno  contra  le  Tragicommedie,  e  le  Pastorali;  L'altro 
contra  II  Pastor  Fido  Tragicommedia  Pastorale  dell'illustre  Signer 
Cavalicre  Battista  Guarini.  Di  Faustino  Summo  (Padova,  1600),  Guarini, 
Opcre,  III,  543-596. 

^'' Considerazioni  intorno  al  Pastor  fido  deU'Eccellentiss.  Sig.  Dottor 
Giovanni  Pietro  Malacreta  (Venice,   1600).     Ibid.,  IV,   1-122. 

^^  Risposta  alle  considerazioni  o  dubbi  dell'eccellentissimo  Signor  Dottor 
Malacreta  accademico  ordito  Sopra  il  Pastor  fido  con  altre  varie  dubitazioni 
tanto  contra  detti  dubbi  e  considerazioni,  quanta  contra  I'istesso  Pastor 
fido.  Con  tin  discorso  nel  fine  per  compendia  di  tutta  I'opera.  Di  Paolo 
Bcni   (Padova,   1600).      Ibid.,   IV,   123-300. 

^Apologia  Di  Gio.  Savio  Venezianod.  In  difesa  del  Pastor  Fido  Tragi- 
commedia Pastorale  Del  Molto  lUustre  Signor  Cavalier  Battista  Guarino 
Dalle  opposizioni  fattegli  dagli  eccellentissimi  Signori  Faustino  Summo  Gio. 
Pietro  Malacrcti,  e  Angela  Ingegno.  Divesa  in  tre  parti  (Venice,  1601). 
Ibid..  IV,   303-643. 


43 

first,  the  author  champions  tragicomedies  in  general.  Why, 
he  asks,  if  poetry  is  a  mirror  of  human  Hfe,  can  it  not  be 
tragicomic?  Is  it  possible  that  art  wishes  only  to  imitate  the 
extremes,  which  are  represented  in  tragedy  and  comedy,  and 
not  the  mean,  which  is  the  perfection  peculiar  to  tragicomedy  ? 
Moreover,  "  all  the  world  approves  of  tragicomedies,  and  loves 
and  admires  the  '  Pastor  Fido '  in  particular."  In  Venice  it 
has  been  printed  fourteen  times,  in  France  not  only  printed 
but  translated,  and  in  England  the  same.^^  The  second  and 
third  parts  of  the  discourse  are  taken  up  with  defending  the 
"  Pastor  Fido "  itself,  maintaining  that  the  play  has  unity, 
that  it  is  not  excessively  long,  that  the  nature  of  the  story  is 
tragicomic,  that  the  title  of  "  Pastor  Fido  "  is  well  applied — 
a  point  of  great  dispute, — and  lastly  that  the  style  is  mediocre, 
that  is,  halfway  between  the  styles  of  tragedy  and  comedy,  and 
therefore,  precisely  suited  to  tragicomedy.  The  same  exor- 
bitant praise  of  the  play  was  maintained  by  Orlando  Pescetti 
in  a  "  Risposta  "  (i6oi)^*  to  the  doubts  of  Summo,  Malacreta 
and  Beni,  which  thrashed  over  the  already  well-worn  points 
of  controversy  without  adding  anything  new.  But  it  im- 
mediately brought  forth  a  counter-reply  from  Summo  in  a 
republication  of  his  former  two  "  Discorsi "  with  a  specific 
"Replica"  (i6oi)^^  to  Pescetti;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  a 
third  defense  of  the  "  Pastor  Fido  "  by  Gauges  de  Gozze  of 
Pescaro  is  known  to  have  circulated  in  manuscript  about  the 

^^  The  Pastor  Fido  was  not,  so  far  as  we  know,  translated  into  English 
until  the  following  year,  1602.      Below,  p.  104. 

^*  Risposta  D' Orlando  Pescetti  Airundecimo  (and  dodicesimo)  de' Discorsi 
poetici  deU'Ecccll.  Sig.  Faustin  Summo.  Risposta  alle  Consider asioni  o 
Dubbi  dell'Eccellentiss.  Sig.  Gio.  Pietro  Malacreta,  Sopra  II  Pastor-fido. 
D'Orlando  Pescetti.  Scioglimento  de  i  Dubbi  del  M.  R.  Sig.  D.  Pagolo 
Beni  mossi  contra  il  Pastorfido  Nella  sua  risposta  alle  considerasioni  dell'- 
Eccellentiss Sig.  Dottor  Malacreta  accademico  Ordito.  D'Orlando  Pescetti. 
Verona,  1601. 

^^  Due  discorsi,  I'ltno  contra  le  Tragicommedie  et  moderne  pastorali, 
I'altro  particolarmente  contra  il  Pastor  Fido  dell'Ill.  re  Sig.  Cav.  B.  G. 
Con  una  replica  dell'istesso  autore  alia  difesa  del  detto  P.  F.,  pubblicata 
sotto  name  di  Orlando  Pescetti  et  insieme  una  risposta  del  medisimo  in 
difesa  del  metro  nelle  poesie  e  nei  poemi,  contro  il  parerc  del  niolto  Rev. 
Sig.  Paolo  Beni,  Venice,  1601. 


44 

same  time.^''  In  1603,  a  Sicilian.  Luigi  d'Eredia,  arrayed 
himself  on  the  hostile  side  with  an  "Apologia,"^'  disputing 
certain  statements  of  Guarini;  and  similar  echoes  of  the  con- 
troversy continued  on  into  the  seventeenth  century.^^  As  late 
as  1625  we  find  one  of  the  "  Dialoghi  "'■^'■^  of  Lodovico  Zuccolo 
devoted  to  praise  of  the  pastoral ;  while  at  the  end  of  the  same 
year,  Benedetto  Fioretti  (Udeno  Nisiely)  in  his  "  Progin- 
nasmi  Poetici "  declared  tragicomedy  to  be  "a  monster  of 
poetry  so  enormous  and  counterfait  that  the  centaurs,  the 
hippogriffs,  the  chimera,  in  comparison  with  it  have  graceful 
and  perfect  parts."*" 

During  all  this  time  the  fame  of  the  "  Pastor  Fido  "  spread, 
and  grew  to  be  quite  commensurate  with  the  critical  discussion 
that  it  had  aroused.  Its  popularity  dates  from  its  first  ap- 
pearance, and  steadily  continued  in  spite  of  hostile  criticism, 
as  testified  both  by  stage  performances — which  became  in- 
creasingly frequent  toward  the  close  of  the  century  both  in 
public  and  private  theaters  in  all  the  chief  cities  of  Italy — and 
more  particularly  by  innumerable  editions  and  translations  of 
the  text.  In  Italy  the  1602  edition  claimed  to  be  the  twentieth 
imprint  of  the  play.*^  The  seventeenth  century  produced  not 
less  than  forty  editions  in  Italian,  and  the  next  century  con- 
tributed as  many  more.  A  French  translation  was  made  prob- 
ably as  early  as  1593;*"  in  1602  appeared  Spanish  and  English 
versions ;  and  later  the  play  was  turned  into  German,  Greek, 
Polish,  Swedish,  Dutch,  Indian  and  Persian,  not  to  mention 
two  Italian  dialects  and  various  renderings  in  Latin.  The  in- 
fluence thus  brought  to  bear  in  commending  the  practise  of 

'*  See  Rossi,  p.  247,  note  2. 

*'^  Apologia  di  D.  Luigi  di  Eredia  nelle  quale  si  defendono  Teocrito  e  i 
doviesi  poeti  ciciliani  dalle  accuse  di  B.  G.  et  per  incidenza  si  mette  in 
disputa  it  suo  P.  fido,  Palermo,  1603. 

^*  See  F.  Foffano,  Ricerche  Litterarie  (1897),  p.  234;  Rossi,  p.  248  flf. 

^11  Guardino  ovvero  della  eminenza  della  pastorale,  Dialoghi  di  Lodovico 
Zuccolo,  Venice,   1625. 

*"  Proginnasmi  Poetici,  5  vols.,  Firenze,  1620-1639.  Proginiu,  51-53 
treat  of  tragicomedy. 

*^  Rossi  tabulates  eighteen  known  editions  before  this  date.      See  p.  314. 

"  Rossi,  p.  237. 


45 

tragicomedy  to  the  romantic  playwrights  of  the  seventeenth 
century  needs  no  further  comment. 

(2)  Spain 
To  Spain  belongs  the  distinction  of  having  produced  the 
earliest  vernacular  tragicomedy  known,  the  famous  "  Celes- 
tina,"  entitled  in  the  1502  edition  "  Tragicomedia  de  Calisto  y 
Melibea."*^  This  composition,  which  is  more  a  prose  romance 
in  dialog  than  a  proper  drama  and  could  never  have  been  in- 
tended for  stage  production,  presents  in  a  series  of  twenty-one 
acts  the  well-known  story  of  the  passion  of  Calisto  for  Melibea, 
its  attainment  thru  the  help  of  the  enchantress  Celestina,  and 
its  tragical  ending  in  the  death  of  all  the  chief  characters. 
While  the  plot  turns  on  a  romantic  and  tragical  love  story,  the 
main  interest  centers  more  on  the  realistic  picture  of  contem- 
porary life  afforded  by  Celestina  and  the  minor  characters,  in 
which  respect  the  play  is  closely  allied  to  Plautus  and  Terence. 
The  Senecan  catastrophe,  however,  destroys  the  force  of  the 
piece  as  a  comedy,  and  hence  the  classification  of  tragicomedy, 
which  the  prolog  of  the  1514  edition  explains  as  follows: 

"  Others  have  contended  about  the  name,  saying  that  it  ought  not  to 
be  called  a  comedy,  because  it  ends  in  sorrow  and  mourning,  but  rather 
termed  a  tragedy.  The  author  himself  would  have  it  take  its  denomination 
from  its  beginning,  which  treats  of  pleasure,  and  therefore  called  it  a 
comedy.  So  that  I,  seeing  these  differences,  between  their  extremes  have 
parted  this  quarrel  by  dividing  it  in  the  midst,  and  call  it  a  tragi-comedy."  ** 

This  use  of  the  genre  name  as  an  arbitrary  compromise  be- 
tween the  claims  of  a  piece  to  the  title  both  of  tragedy  and 
comedy  is  common  enough  among  early  tragicomedies ;  but 
the  Renaissance  connotation  of  the  mixed  title  practically 
always  involves  the  happy  ending  as  a  first  requisite.  The 
"  Celestina,"  therefore,  due  to  its  tragic  catastrophe,  is  vir- 
tually   anomalous    as    a    tragicomedy;    and    can    neither    be 

"The  first  extant  edition  of  the  Celestina  dates  from  1499,  but  the  play 
has  been  assigned  as  early  as  1483.  Fernando  de  Rojas  is  the  supposed 
author  of  the  greater  part  of  it.  For  a  full  summary  of  the  critical 
opinions  as  to  date  and  authorship,  see  edition  of  H.  Warner  Allen 
(Library  of  Early  Novelists),  1908,  Appendix  II,  p.  303. 

"Translation  of  James  Mabbe,  1631. 


46 

reckoned  an  important  influence  in  shaping  the  form  of  later 
tragicomic  drama  nor  the  conceptions  that  were  becoming  as- 
sociated with  that  species,  altho,  due  to  its  tremendous  popular- 
ity and  wide  dissemination  thruout  western  Europe  in  trans- 
lations and  adaptations,  it  doubtless  contributed  to  the  spread 
of  the  name.^^ 

The  second  link  connecting  early  Spanish  drama  with  tragi- 
comedy is  furnished  by  a  group  of  plays  of  the  title  name 
found  in  the  dramatic  work  of  the  Portuguese  playwright  and 
actor,  Gil  Vicente.  These  productions,  ten  in  number,  date 
from  15 13  to  1533  and  are  composed  indiscriminately  in  Cas- 
tilian,  Portuguese,  or  in  both  tongues.  Eight  are  of  the 
nature  of  festive  interludes,  written  for  special  gala  occasions 
at  the  court  of  King  Manuel.'"'  They  are  all  slight  composi- 
tions, animated  and  fanciful,  drawing  on  classical  mythology 
and  medieval  allegory  for  subject  matter,  and  admitting  a 
local  element  in  some  comic  and  realistic  admixture.  The 
other  two  are  more  pretentious  attempts  at  actual  drama,  pre- 
senting episodes  from  chivalric  romance  and  containing  more 
of  the  elements  of  the  coming  national  theater.*"  In  every  case 
the  title  distinction  seems  to  have  been  conferred  with  the 
same  indiscrimination  and  lack  of  purpose  already  noticed  in 
the  earliest  vernacular  tragicomedies  in  Italy.  Thus,  while 
of  considerable  importance  in  the  development  of  the  Spanish 
drama,  as  tragicomedies  Vicente's  plays  have  chiefly  a  curious 
and  historical  interest.*^ 

^^  The  Celcstina  was  known  in  translated  or  redacted  form  in  Italian, 
French,  English,  German,  Dutch  and  Latin.  Among  the  many  later 
Spanish  imitations  may  be  mentioned  one,  a  prose  continuation  by  Sancho 
de  Munon,  which  took  over  the  genre  name :  Tragicomedia  de  Lisandro  y 
Roselia  (1542),  reprinted  in  Collecion  de  Libros  Espafioles  raros  6  curiosos, 
Madrid,  1872,  III.  The  influence  of  the  Cclestina  in  England  will  call  for 
attention  later. 

*^ Exortagdo  a  la  Guerre  (1513),  Cortes  de  Jupiter  (1519),  Fragoa 
d'Amor  (1525),  Templo  d'ApoUo  (1526),  Nao  d'amores  (1527),  Serra  da 
Estrella,  tragicomedia  pastoril  (1527),  Trinmpho  do  Inverno  (1530),  and 
Romagem  de  Aggravados  (1533). 

"Don  Duardos  (1525)  and  Aniadis  de  Gaula  (1533). 

■**  On  Vicente's  tragicomedies,  see  Creizenach,  Geschichte,  III,  190  ff. ; 
Schack,  Geschichte,  I,  174-5;  Lancaster,  pp.  27-28,  156.    The  tragicomedies 


47 

So  much  for  the  tragicomedies  that  prelude  the  real  national 
Spanish  drama  as  it  came  into  being  toward  the  close  of  the 
sixteenth  century.  Tragicomedy  by  name  does  not  seem  to 
have  commended  itself  to  playwrights  during  the  period  be- 
tween Vicente  and  the  first  great  master  of  the  Spanish  drama, 
Lope  de  Vega.'*''  Conditions  had  not  made  for  interest  in 
dramatic  distinctions.  The  few  attempts  to  create  a  popular 
drama  had  had  no  dependence  on  classical  precedent  or  foreign 
example,  but  had  followed  unhindered  along  the  lines  of 
medieval  heritage  ;  and  dramatic  theory  was  a  thing  yet  lui- 
known  in  Spain.  Moreover,  the  dramas  of  this  period  are  few 
in  number,  diverse  in  form,  and  rmdecided  in  character  ;  and, 
while  some  are  of  tragicomic  plot,  they  ofifer  no  particular 
interest  here.  It  was  with  Lope  de  Vega  and  his  invention  of 
the  so-called  Comcdia  de  Capo  y  Espoda  that  the  Spanish 
drama  first  took  definite  and  fixed  form ;  and  it  is  in  relation  to 
this  aspect  of  the  national  theater  that  the  later  question  of 
tragicomedy  in  Spain  has  to  do. 

The  character  of  the  Cloak  and  Sword  drama  is  well  known. 
It  is  distinctly  an  outgrowth  of  the  draine  librc,  national  in 
spirit  and  popular  in  appeal,  and  with  much  the  same  inde- 
pendence of  rules  and  precepts  characteristic  of  similar  devel- 
opments abroad.  Personages  from  the  upper  walks  of  society 
occupy  the  leading  roles  ;  gallantry  is  the  moving  force  ;  and 
the  emphasis  is  primarily  directed  on  the  plot,  usually  an  in- 
vented story  of  intrigue,  comprising  a  sentimental  or  romantic 
interest,  full  of  complications  and  action,  and  melodramatic  in 
the  extreme.  As  a  type  form,  the  Cloak  and  Sword  drama  is 
properly  neither  tragedy  nor  comedy.  On  the  one  hand,  it  is 
full  of  violence,  fighting  and  bloodshed  ;  on  the  other,  it  has 

are   reprinted    in    Vol.    II    of   Feio    and    Monteiro,    Obras   de    Gil    Vicente, 
Hamburg,   1834. 

^*  In  fact,  beside  those  already  mentioned,  only  two  Spanish  tragi- 
comedies are  recorded  before  Lope  de  Vega,  about  1587.  They  are,  an 
anonymous  moral  representation  entitled,  Tragicomedia  alegorica  del 
paraiso  y  del  infierno  (1539) — imitated  from  Vicente's  Auto  de  moralidade 
(1519) — and  Juan  de  Timoneda's  Tragicomedia  llamada  Filomena  (1564), 
a  sort  of  interlude  treating  the  story  of  Tereus  and  Philomela.  See  De 
Moratin,  Origenes  del  Teatro  Espanol,  Paris  (1838),  pp.  78,  94. 


48 

a  happy  ending  and  always  admits  some  sort  of  comic  by-play, 
often  in  the  shape  of  an  underplot  shadowing  the  main  design. 
Thus  Lope,  out  of  the  traditions  of  his  predecessors,  devel- 
oped a  new  kind  of  drama,  which  was  independent  of  the  stric- 
tures of  Renaissance  dramatic  theory,  and  wdiich  in  theme, 
characters,  action  and  style  was  an  intermediate  between  Re- 
naissance notions  of  tragedy  and  comedy.  Yet  in  spite  of  its 
essentially  composite  character,  the  new  form  was  almost  in- 
variably denominated  comcdia,  doubtless  by  reason  of  the 
prevalence  of  happy  endings,  which  would  naturally  give  the 
preference  to  the  milder  of  the  only  two  terms  of  dramatic 
nomenclature  known  to  the  national  theater.  Whatever  the 
reason,  among  playwrights  comcdia  grew  to  be  the  accepted 
denotation  for  every  type  of  drama  from  farce  to  tragedy  — 
excepting  the  religious  auto  —  in  defiance  of  its  traditional 
connotation.  Occasionally  the  more  discriminating  made  use 
of  the  title  tragicouicdia;^^  but  as  a  rule  all  dramatic  distinc- 
tions were  dissolved  in  the  one  term  comcdia,  which,  as  the 
seventeenth  century  progressed,  came  to  be  only  an  equivalent 
for  drama  in  general. ^^  Among  critics,  however — and  by  the 
time  Lope  w'as  embarking  on  his  public  dramatic  career,  Italian 
criticism  was  beginning  to  claim  its  opponents  and  adversaries 
in  Spain — the  new  Cloak  and  Sword  drama,  by  reason  of  its 
mingled  character,  was  frequently  hailed  as  tragicomedy,  and 
condemned  or  defended  accordingly.  This  brings  up  the  whole 
question  of  the  critical  dispute  over  the  legitimacy  of  the 
Spanish  national  drama,  which  was  waged  thruout  the  first 

^^  Schack,  in  speaking  of  the  little  discrimination  used  by  playwrights 
in  classifying  their  plays,  notices  that  when  Lope  himself  employs  the 
term  tragicomedia  in  the  superscription,  in  the  dedication  or  preface  he 
returns  to  comedia.     Geschichte,  II,  75  n. 

"^^  In  1668  Juan  Caramuel  Lobkowitz  wrote:  "  Comocdia  has  a  broader 
meaning  than  tragadia ;  in  fact,  every  tragcedia  is  a  comccdia,  but  the 
inverse  is  not  true.  The  comocdia  is  the  representation  of  an  historical  or 
fictitious  event,  and  can  have  an  happy  or  an  unhappy  issue.  In  the  first 
case,  it  simply  keeps  the  name  of  comocdia,  in  the  second,  it  is  called 
comocdia  tragica  or  tragi-comosdia,  or  again  tragocdia.  Such  is  the  true  dis- 
tinction of  these  words,  altho  others  can  find  fault  with  it."  Primus 
calamus.  Campanije,  1668,  t.  II  (Rhythmica),  p.  701,  On  this  general  sub- 
ject, cp.  Morel-Fatio,  La  Comedia  Espagnole  du  XVIIe  Steele,  Paris,  1885. 


49 

quarter  of  the  seventeenth  century  between  the  detractors  of 
Lope,  on  the  one  hand,  and  his  defenders,  on  the  other,  and 
which  ended  in  a  virtual  vindication  of  the  popular  theater." 
The  national  drama  confessedly  disregarded  the  unities,  set  at 
naught  the  authority  of  the  ancients,  and  mingled  tragic  and 
comic.  The  classicists  protested,  and  the  disciples  of  Lope 
arose  in  defense;  and  thus  ensued  a  critical  controversy,  which 
— it  is  interesting  to  note — so  far  as  it  touched  tragicomedy, 
strongly  echoes  the  earlier  Guarini  discussion. 

Yet  Lope  himself,  while  the  inventor  of  a  tragicomic  type  of 
play,  was  not  the  uncompromising  defender  of  that  species  of 
drama  as  Guarini  had  been.  In  theory  at  least  he  was  a  classi- 
cist himself,  but  a  classicist  who  realized  the  inadequacy  of 
the  rules  for  practical  playwriting;  and  it  is  in  this  spirit  that 
he  formulates  his  dramatic  creed  and  states  his  position  in 
regard  to  the  tragicomic  character  of  his  dramatic  invention. 
Thus  in  the  "Arte  Nuevo  de  Hacer  Comedias"  (1609),  he 
expressly  says : 

"  In  mingling  the  tragic  and  comic,  and  Terence  with  Seneca  (from 
which  results  a  species  of  monster  like  the  Minotaur),  you  will  have  one 
part  of  the  piece  serious  and  the  other  farcical.  But  this  variety  pleases 
very  much.  Nature  herself  gives  us  the  example  of  it,  and  it  is  from  such 
contrasts  that  she  gains  her  beauty." 

The  mingled  drama,  then,  judged  by  the  canons  of  art,  is  dis- 
tinctly improper,  but  the  exigencies  of  popular  taste  demand 
it,^^  and,  moreover,  it  is  not  wholly  without  support,  for  the 
example  of  nature  sustains  it.  Such  is  Lope's  apology  for 
tragicomedy ;  a  more  unqualified  vindication  he  left  to  his  later 
disciples. 

In  the  meanwhile,  however,  the  rigid  exponents  of  classi- 
cism were  not  silent.     Lope's  defense  of  his  dramatic  creed 

^-  For  accounts  of  this  controversy,  see  Menendez  y  Pelayo,  Historia  de 
las  Ideas  Esteticas  en  Espana  (Madrid,  1884),  Vol.  XI,  chap.  X;  Schack, 
Geschichte,  II,  505  ff. ;  Morel-Fatio,  Les  Defenseiirs  de  la  Comedia,  Bul- 
letin Hispanique  (1902),  IV;  Martineche,  La  Comedia  esp.  en  France 
(Paris,  1900),  chap.  I. 

^'  Elsewhere  in  the  same  treatise  Lope  declares :  "  After  all,  it  is  the 
public  who  pays  for  these  absurdities,  'tis  but  just  that  it  be  served  to  its 
taste." 

5 


50 

was  followed  by  a  number  of  critical  rejoinders  from  classi- 
cists who  contested  his  doctrine  and  harshly  assailed  the  irregu- 
larity of  the  national  drama,  lamenting  that  modern  play- 
wrights disregarded  the  rules  of  art  to  cater  to  the  taste  of 
the  Spanish  public,  that  they  introduced  kings  in  comedies  and 
vulgar  persons  in  tragedies,  that  their  plays  were  medleys  of 
everj^thing  and  were  contrary  to  reason,  nature  and  art.^* 
Among  protests  of  this  sort,  that  expressed  in  the  "  Tablas 
Poeticas  "  (1616)  of  the  learned  Francisco  Cascales  may  be 
taken  as  typical  of  the  extreme  classicist's  abhorrence  of  the 
contemporary  drama,  its  defiance  of  rule  and  its  mingling  of 
genres.  The  so-called  comedies  of  the  day,  he  maintains,  altho 
they  end  happily,  are  not  comedies ;  for  they  contain  tragic 
adventures,  revolutions,  affairs  of  honor,  duels,  wounds, 
deaths,  and  like  measures  opposed  to  the  comic  genius.  They 
are  hermaphrodite  creations,  monstrosities  of  poetry.  Xor 
can  they  be  permitted  as  tragicomedies,  for  "  there  is  no  such 
thing  in  the  world  as  a  tragicomedy,  and  if  that  title  has  been 
given  to  the  '  Amphitruo '  of  Plautus,  it  has  been  done  incon- 
siderately." The  purposes  of  tragedy  and  comedy  are  dia- 
metrically opposed  and  cannot  be  united.  "  Banish,  banish," 
he  concludes,  "  the  monstrous  tragicomedy  straightway  from 
your  thoughts,  for  its  existence  is  an  impossibility  according 
to  the  laws  of  art.  I  grant  you  gladly  that  almost  all  plays 
represented  on  our  theaters  are  of  this  kind ;  but  you  will  not 
deny  me  that  they  are  made  against  the  laws  of  reason,  nature 
and  art.""^ 

On  the  other  hand,  apologists  of  the  national  theater  straight- 
way arose  to  contest  these  objections.  In  the  same  year  of 
Cascales'  "Tablas  Poeticas,"  a  certain  poet  of  Valence,  who 
wrote  under  the  pseudonym  of  Ricardo  del  Turia,  published 
an  "  Apologetico  de  las  comedias  espaiiolas,"'^''  in  which  he  de- 

"  Cristobal  de  Mesa,  Rimas  (1611),  and  Cristobal  Suarez  de  Figueroa, 
Plaza  universal  de  todas  las  ciencias  (1615),  p.  515,  and  El  Pasajcro 
(161 7)  ;  cp.  also,  Antonio  Lopez  de  Vega,  Heraclito  y  Democrito  (pr. 
1641).      See  Menendez  y  Pelayo,  XI,  433-437. 

^Tablas  Poeticas  (1779  ed.),  pp.  165-7,  187-8.  See  Menendez  y  Pelayo, 
XI,  429 ;  Schack,  II,  509  ff. 

^*  Reprinted  by  Morel-Fatio,  Lcs  Defcuseurs  dc  la  Comcdia  {Bulletin 
Hispanique,  IV,   1902),  p.  47. 


51    / 

fended  the  tragicomic  nature  of  the  Spanish  drama  with  argu- 
ments taken  directly  from  Guarini.  The  popular  comedia  he 
admits  is  no  comedy,  properly  speaking,  "  but  a  tragicomedy, 
which  is  a  mixture  formed  from  tragic  and  comic,  taking  from 
the  one  the  noble  characters,  grand  action,  pity  and  terror,  and 
from  the  other  the  particular  subject,  the  laughter  and  pleas- 
antry f^  and  no  one,"  he  continues,  "  can  consider  this  mixture 
improper,  since  it  is  not  repugnant  to  nature  and  to  poetic  art, 
wherein  noble  and  lowly  persons  are  mingled  in  the  same 
story."  Kings  and  servants  are  joined  in  the  "  CEdipus  "  of 
Sophocles,  and  even  beasts  are  introduced  by  Aristophanes. 
Moreover,  tragicomedy  is  not  a  composition  of  two  separable 
parts,  as  some  have  thought,  but  a  unified  mixture  blended  ac- 
cording to  the  principles  of  philosophy.^^  Nor  need  it  call 
philosophy  or  metaphysics  to  its  support  or  even  the  success- 
ful example  of  foreign  poets,  but  it  is  vindicated  sufficiently 
by  its  appeal  to  popular  taste  and  its  great  success  on  the 
Spanish  stage.^^ 

Other  defenders  of  the  national  comedia — or  tragicomcdia, 
as  it  was  often  interchangeably  called — only  reasserted  the 
arguments  of  Ricardo.  The  independence  of  art  from  ancient 
rules  on  the  ground  that  nature  is  the  first  and  last  guide  of 
all  poetry,  is  again  maintained  by  Alonso  Sanchez,  in  a  contri- 
bution to  an  "  Expostulatio  Spongiae "  (1618),  published  by 
the  disciples  of  Lope  in  answer  to  an  attack  on  their  master. 
If  Lope  has  discarded  the  ancient  rules,  he  has  respected  the 
principal  precept  of  art,  which  is  to  imitate  nature;  and  if  the 
Spanish  comedia  is  to  adjust  itself  to  the  rules  and  laws  of  the 
ancients,  it  will  run  contrary  to  nature  and  the  foundations  of 
poetry.*^"  Much  the  same  position  is  taken  by  Francisco  de  la 
Barreda  in  his  "  El  mejor  Principe  Trajano  Augusto  "  (1622). 
"  Why  should  we  not  mingle  the  happy  and  the  sad,"  he  asks, 
"if  nature  mingles  them?"  Moreover,  the  ancients  have 
joined  laughter  and  tears,  and  united  the  noble  with  the  lowly, 

^^  Cp.  Guarini,  above,  p.  27- 

=^  Ihid. 

^®  See  Bulletin  Hispanique,  IV,  48  ff. ;  Menendez  y  Pelayo,  XI,  467-9. 

'"  Menendez  y  Pelayo,  XI,  459  ff. 


52 

as  ^schylus  and  Euripides  bear  witness.''^  And  Tirso  de 
Molina,  in  the  last  and  most  convincing  of  all  the  apologies 
for  the  Spanish  drama,  following  the  same  argument,  reiter- 
ates, "  What  wonder  if  the  comcdia  oversteps  the  laws  of  its 
predecessors  and  constantly  mingles  the  tragic  with  the  comic, 
producing  a  pleasant  mixture  of  those  two  opposite  poems  ?"°- 
Thus  the  drama  of  Lope,  vindicated  by  critical  theory  as  well 
as  by  popular  verdict,  rode  triumphantly  over  all  opposition 
and  became  established  as  the  national  species.  In  retrospect 
the  following  facts  are  evident:  That  the  Spanish  comedia,  as 
it  took  shape  at  the  close  of  the  sixteenth  century,  was  a  dra- 
matic species  frankly  irregular  in  more  ways  than  one,  espe- 
cially in  mingling  tragic  and  comic;  whence  it  came  about  that 
in  critical  opinion  at  least  it  was  frequently  identified  with 
tragicomedy ;  and  furthermore,  that  in  reply  to  critical  assaults, 
a  group  of  apologists  arose,  who,  strongly  influenced  by 
Guarini,  upheld  the  tragicomic  character  of  the  national  species 
on  three  counts — the  example  of  nature,  the  precedent  of  the 
ancients,  and  the  approbation  of  the  people;  and  lastly,  that 
these  arguments  prevailed  and  the  Spanish  comcdia  remained 
a  pure  product  of  the  drama  libre. 

(3)    France 

Tragicomedy  by  name  appeared  independently  both  in  the 
Italian  and  Spanish  vernacular  dramas  before  it  showed  it- 
self in  France,  where  its  introduction  is  doubtless  to  be 
accounted  for  as  one  of  the  many  literary  heritages  that  the 
latter  country  owes  to  the  earlier  Renaissance  activity  of  her 
two  peninsular  neighbors.  Not  until  the  middle  of  the  six- 
teenth century  is  there  record  of  a  French  play  of  the  title 
name,  altho  it  is  certain  that  the  form  was  not  unknown — to 
the  learned  at  least — at  an  earlier  period.*^^  Yet  from  the 
middle  until  the  close  of  the  century  the  frequent  appearance  of 

^^Ibid.,  479-80. 

^- Ci  gar  rales  de  Toledo,  1624,  reprinted  by  Morel-Fatio,  Bulletin  His- 
panique,  IV,  43;  see  also  Menendez  y  Pelayo,  XI,  473;  Schack,  II,  560. 

"For  example,  Rabelais,  Patitagniel  (1533),  IV,  12:  "  Alors  soyez  prests, 
et  venez  en  salle  jouer  la  tragique  comedie,  que  vous  ay  espouse." 


53 

so-called  tragicomedies  among  plays  of  the  popular  theater 
indicates  that  the  new  name  was  commending  itself  to  French 
vernacular  playwrights  even  more  generally  than  to  their  com- 
rades in  Italy  and  Spain.  And  moreover,  at  the  close  of  this 
formative  period,  tragicomedy  in  France  had  ceased  to  be 
sporadic  and  was  rapidly  assuming  the  character  of  a  definite 
dramatic  kind,  which  was  destined  to  flourish  in  the  next 
century  as  the  most  popular  stage  form  before  the  period 
of  classicism.  As  this  whole  question  of  the  origin  and  de- 
velopment of  French  tragicomedy  has  been  made  the  subject 
of  a  detailed  investigation  by  Dr.  H.  C.  Lancaster,*'*  it  will  be 
enough  here  to  review  briefly  the  main  facts  of  the  situation 
and  indicate  their  relation  to  the  development  of  tragicomedy 
generally. 

Contrary  to  the  precedent  of  Italy  and  Spain,  where  the 
earliest  vernacular  tragicomedies  are  found  to  be  plays  of 
secular  theme,  in  France  the  first  productions  of  the  name 
are  religious  presentations  of  direct  medieval  outgrowth ;  and, 
moreover,  of  the  same  type  are  the  majority  of  all  their  im- 
mediate successors,  at  least  those  antedating  the  ascendency 
of  Alexandre  Hardy  on  the  Parisian  stage  about  1600,®^  which 
may  be  taken  as  a  logical  terminus  ad  quern  of  the  formative 
period  of  the  species  in  France.*'^  In  other  respects,  however, 
early  French  tragicomedies  differ  little  from  their  foreign  pro- 
totypes. They  are  all  plays  of  the  indigenous  stage,  showing 
classical  influence  only  in  some  aspects  of  external  form,  and 
having  little  in  common  unless  it  be  the  happy  ending.  Brief 
accounts  of  a  few  of  the  most  representative  may  sufficiently 
indicate  the  general  tenor  of  the  group. 

As  typifying  the  essentially  medieval  cast  of  most  of  early 
French  tragicomedy,  the  two  very  first  plays  to  bear  the  name 
are  good  examples.     The  "  Tragique  Comedie  Frangoise  de 

^  The  French  Tragi-Comedy,  Its  Origin  and  Development  from  1552  to 
1628  (Dissertation,  Johns  Hopkins,  1907),  which  I  have  drawn  upon 
freely   for  the  material   of   this  section. 

°°  Of  the  sixteen  known  tragicomedies  cataloged  by  Dr.  Lancaster  as 
written  before  this  date,  eleven  are  Biblical  or  religious  and  only  five 
secular. 

'"'  Lancaster,   p.   36,   note  2. 


54 

rhomme  iustifie  par  Foy,"  written  by  Henry  de  Barran  in 
1552,  is  a  pure  morality,  given  an  act  and  scene  division  but 
displaying  all  the  essentials  of  the  medieval  type :  didactic 
purpose,  character  abstractions,  symbolic  action  and  moral 
struggle.  Between  the  forces  of  good  and  evil  man's  fate 
trembles  in  the  balance,  but  truth  and  righteousness  prevail  in 
the  end  and  his  ultimate  salvation  is  accomplished.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  second  play  of  the  name  is  a  Biblical  mystery, 
entitled  "  Tragi-comedie.  L' Argument  pris  du  troisieme 
chapitre  de  Daniel:  avec  le  cantique  des  trois  enfans,  chante 
en  la  fornaise,"  the  work  of  Antoine  de  la  Croix  in  1561. 
Barring  the  classical  features  of  prolog,  epilog  and  chorus,  the 
play  offers  nothing  distinctive  over  any  other  crude  presenta- 
tion of  Old  Testament  story;  altho,  as  the  title  indicates,  the 
subject  is  one  of  marked  tragicomic  possibilities — a  fact  of 
some  significance  in  estimating  the  probable  interpretation  of 
the  Plautine  term  among  vulgar  playwrights. 

As  already  intimated,  the  majority  of  sixteenth  century 
French  tragicomedies  conform  to  the  types  represented  by  the 
above  two  plays,  being  essentially  medieval  in  spirit,  crude  in 
construction  and  obscure  in  authorship.  Yet  one  notable  ex- 
ception occurs.  In  1582,  a  regular  dramatist,  Robert  Garnier, 
produced  the  "  Bradamante,"  a  tragicomedy  which,  as  it  most 
nearly  anticipates  the  form  of  the  later  developed  product,  is 
usually  considered  the  real  starting-point  of  the  genre  in 
France.  Here  the  subject  is  a  tale  of  romantic  love,  taken 
from  the  "  Orlando  Furioso,"  and  given  a  freedom  of  treat- 
ment surprising  in  a  classical  playwright.  A  complicated  plot, 
serious  action,  comic  admixture  and  crowning  happy  denoue- 
ment for  all  concerned,  further  identify  the  play  not  only  with 
the  conventional  type  of  French  tragicomedy  as  established  by 
Hardy  and  his  contemporaries,  but  with  corresponding  devel- 
opments in  other  countries  as  well.  Doubtless  to  the  author, 
however,  it  was  the  general  departure  of  his  piece  from  classi- 
cal dramatic  form  rather  than  the  happy  solution  of  tragical 
entanglements  that  called  forth  the  mixed  title. 

Be  this  as  it  may,  the  "  Bradamante  "  stands  as  a  tragi- 
comedy well  worthy  the  name,  and  as  such  it  is  practically 


55 

isolated  in  sixteenth  century  French  drama. ^'  From  the  ex« 
tremes  of  morahty,  mystery  and  even  farce''^ — which  make 
up  the  sum  of  contemporary  pieces  of  the  title  name — it  is  evi- 
dent that  anything  approaching  a  definite  conception  of  tragi- 
comedy was  far  from  existing  in  France  before  the  seven- 
teenth century.  Probably  the  name  connoted  to  those  who 
used  it  only  an  indefinite  idea  of  dramatic  freedom, ^^  and  was 
reckoned  applicable  to  any  type  of  irregular  composition  that 
fell  short  of  tragedy.  A  more  positive  inference  would  be 
hard  to  substantiate.  France  had  as  yet  produced  no  critical 
exponent  of  the  drame  litre  to  champion  the  cause  of  tragi- 
comedy. Even  recognition  of  the  form  in  contemporary 
French  criticism  of  any  sort  is  rare.  Vauquelin,  indeed,  in  his 
"Art  Poetique "  (1574-1589),  mentions  the  mixed  play  of 
happy  ending — perhaps  with  the  "  Bradamante "  in  mind — 
but  only  to  condemn  the  name  of  tragicomedy  to  denote  it, 
since  tragedy  itself  may  end  happily  as  ancient  precedent 
proves. '°  It  was  well  into  the  seventeenth  century  before  the 
Guarini  controversy  aroused  an  echo  in  France. 

*'  Many  editions  testify  to  the  wide  dissemination  and  long  continued 
popularity  of  the  Bradamante ;  and  as  an  acting  play  it  long  kept  the 
boards  in  the  early  seventeenth  century.  Cp.  Rigal,  Alexandre  Hardy, 
p.  93. 

^ La  Nonvelle  tragicomique  (1597)  of  Marc  de  Papillon  is  a  farce,  if 
a  drama  at  all. 

"^  This  seems  to  be  the  idea  conveyed  by  the  following  lines  from  the 
preface  of  La  Nonvelle  tragicomique,  the  sole  instance  of  any  expressed 
apology  or  explanation  for  the  use  of  the  title  among  these  plays : 

Je  n'ensuy  en  cette  oeuvre  icy 

La    fagon    de    I'ardeur    antique, 

C'est  pourquoi  je  la  nomme  aussi 

La   Nouvelle   tragi-comique.     See   Lancaster,   p.   xii. 

'"  On  fait  la  Comedie  aussi   double,  de  sorte 
Qu'avecques  le  Tragic  le  Comic  se  raporte. 
Quand  il  y  a  du  meurtre  et  qu'on  voit  toutefois, 
Qu'a  la  fin  sont  contens  les  plus  grands  et  les  Rois, 
Quand   du  graue   et   du   bas  le  parler  on   mendie, 
On  abuse  du  nom  de  Tragecomedie ; 
Car  on  peut  bien  encor  par  vn  succez  heureux, 
Finir   la   Tragedie   en   ebats   amoureux : 
Telle  estoit  d'Euripide  et  I'lon   et  I'Oreste, 
LTphiginie,  Helene  et  la  fidelle  Alceste.     Lib,  III,  I.  163  ff. 


56 

It  is  evident,  then,  that  tragicomedy  remained  an  uncertain 
quantity  during  the  fomiative  period  of  the  French  drama. 
As  yet  it  had  existed  only  sporadically  among  various  surviv- 
ing forms  of  the  medieval  stage,  without  having  aroused  criti- 
cal approval  or  special  condemnation.  But  with  the  new  era 
in  French  drama  ushered  in  by  the  coming  of  Alexander  Hardy 
to  Paris  in  1593,  and  with  the  impetus  that  the  irregular  drama 
received  in  his  hands,  tragicomedy  enters  on  a  period  of  new 
existence;  its  future  is  determined  and  its  success  assured. 
With  Hardy  and  his  contemporaries  it  is  the  play  of  romantic 
theme  and  happy  ending — the  formula  anticipated  by  the 
"  Bradamante  "  of  Garnier — that  becomes  the  accepted  vehicle 
for  tragicomedy,  and  by  the  side  of  which  all  other  types  of 
the  species  sink  into  insignificance. 

As  to  Hardy  himself,  the  virtual  founder  and  the  chief  ex- 
ponent of  the  new  kind,  abundant  information  is  readily  ac- 
cessible in  the  able  treatise  of  Rigal.'^  His  dramatic  activity 
at  the  Hotel  de  Bourgogne,  extending  from  1593  to  1631,  was 
the  paramount  influence  in  the  formation  of  the  modern 
French  theater;  it  broke  the  classical  tradition  and  transformed 
the  drama  from  an  academic  to  a  popular  performance.  In 
fecundity  he  was  only  rivaled  by  Lope  himself;'-  and  as  about 
half  of  his  forty-one  surviving  plays  are  tragicomedies,  his  real 
contribution  to  the  form  may  have  been — as  Dr.  Lancaster 
suggests"^ — proportionally  enormous.  Thus  we  may  gain  some 
idea  of  the  importance  of  his  position  in  the  development  of 
the  subject.  If  Hardy  cherished  any  theory  of  tragicomedy, 
it  is  not  preserved.  He  was  a  practical  playwright,  bound  by 
no  literary  laws  or  authority,  and  probably  cared  little  or 
nothing  for  the  theoretical  side  of  the  drama  so  long  as  his 
plays  received  the  plaudits  of  the  crowd.'*  Indeed,  a  distinc- 
tion between  some  of  his  professed  tragedies  and  tragicomedies 
is  not  always  easily  drawn,  which  goes  to  show  his  evident  un- 

''^  Alexandre  Hardy  et  le  Theatre  fraiigais  a  la  fin  du  XVIe  et  au  com- 
mencement du  XVIIe  Steele   (Dissertation,   Paris,    1889). 

"  His  plays  are  estimated  by  Rigal  at  seven  hundred. 

''^The  French  Tragi-Comedy,  p.  loi. 

'*  In  his  own  words,  "  Everything  which  is  approved  by  usage  and  the 
public   taste   is   legitimate   and  more   than   legitimate." 


57 

concern  for  any  guiding  critical  theory.  The  general  charac- 
teristics, however,  of  his  tragicomedies  and  those  of  his  chief 
contemporaries,  Du  Ryer  and  Alairet,  sufficiently  indicate  the 
conventional  lines  that  the  form  was  assuming  in  France  at  the 
beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century. 

First  of  all,  tragicomedy,  being  per  se  an  irregular  form, 
displayed  all  the  qualities  of  the  drauie  libre:  it  confused  the 
methods  of  romance  and  drama,  exercised  the  greatest  freedom 
in  structure  and  materials,  and  threw  overboard  the  unities 
and  classical  decorum  generally.  Secondly,  the  more  distinc- 
tive features  of  the  form  comprised  a  romantic  story  of  classi- 
cal or  popular  source,  love  as  a  main  motive,  personages  of 
mingled  social  station,  and  the  happy  ending  for  the  chief 
characters,  in  spite  of  an  action  admitting  violence,  bloodshed 
and  sometimes  deaths.  Such  plays  were  directly  akin  to  the 
"  tragedies  of  happy  ending  "  that  Giraldi  had  earlier  invented 
for  Italy,  and  not  far  removed  from  the  contemporary  "  Cloak 
and  Sword  "  comcdias  of  Lope.  All  were  independent  out- 
growths of  the  irregular  theater,  and  all  owed  their  tragicomic 
character  to  the  exigencies  of  popular  taste,  which  was,  more 
than  anything  else,  the  real  raison  d'etre  for  the  form. 

During  the  first  thirty  years  of  the  seventeenth  century  the 
number  and  evident  popularity  of  tragicomedies  of  the  type 
cultivated  by  Hardy  and  his  disciples  furnish  sufficient  evidence 
that  the  form — on  the  French  stage  at  least — had  attained  the 
dignity  of  an  independent  genre.  Yet  not  until  1628,  the  year 
Hardy's  last  volume  appeared,  did  the  new  species  receive  the 
critical  justification  that  defenders  of  the  free  drama  had 
already  given  it  in  Italy  and  Spain.  In  this  year  appeared  the 
famous  Preface  of  Frangois  Ogier  to  the  second  edition  of  the 
"  Tyr  et  Sidon,"  a  tragicomedy  by  Jean  de  Schelandre.  As 
Spanish  influence  at  this  time  was  beginning  to  be  rife  across 
the  Pyrenees,  it  is  quite  probable  that  this  first  French  mani- 
festo of  the  irregular  drama  owed  something  to  the  earlier 
activity  of  the  defenders  of  the  Spanish  comedia;  and  doubt- 
less some  echo  of  the  Guarini  discussion  had  reached  the  author 
as  well.  At  all  events,  the  arguments  advanced  by  Ogier  in 
support  of  the  irregular  theater  and  its  independence  of  classi- 


58 

cal  tradition  were  already  familiar  abroad,  and  his  comments 
on  tragicomedy  only  reiterate  the  opinions  that  Ricardo  del 
Turia  and  Francisco  de  la  Barreda  had  earlier  advanced  in 
Spain.  The  fact  that  the  ancients  themselves  invented  the 
satyric  drama  as  relief  from  pure  tragedy,  he  maintains  is  sufB- 
cient  excuse  for  the  practise  of  tragicomedy,  "  which  has  been 
introduced  by  the  Italians  ";  and  those  who  object  to  it  on  the 
ground  that  it  departs  from  classical  custom,  are  contending 
only  against  the  name,  for  the  thing  itself  is  as  old  as  the 
"  Cyclops "  of  Euripides.  ISIoreover,  the  mingling  of  tones 
and  the  variety  of  events  furnished  by  the  mixed  species  best 
represent  real  life : 

"  For  to  say  that  it  is  unseemly  to  present  in  one  piece  the  same  persons, 
treating  now  of  serious,  important  and  tragic  affairs,  and  straightway  of 
ordinary,  vain  and  comic  matters,  is  to  ignore  the  condition  of  men's 
lives,  of  whom  the  days  and  hours  are  ofttimes  mingled  with  laughter 
and  tears,  with  contentment  and  aiBiction,  according  as  they  are  moved 
by  good  or  by  evil  fortune.  .  .  .  Nature  herself  has  shown  us  that  joy 
and  sadness  hardly  differ  one  from  the  other,  since  the  painters  observe 
that  the  same  muscles  and  nerves  that  make  us  laugh  likewise  make  us 
weep  and  put  us  in  that  sad  state  when  we  feel  a  great  grief." 

A  few  years  later  another  partisan  of  the  irregular  theater, 
the  author  of  the  anonymous  "  Traite  de  la  disposition  du 
poeme  dramatique  "  (163 1-2),  similarly  arrayed  himself  on  the 
side  of  tragicomedy.  But  these  treatises  were  the  work  of 
scholars  rather  than  of  playwrights.  Wherein  they  treat  of 
tragicomedy,  it  is  only  to  defend  the  mingling  of  tragic  and 
comic  as  a  natural  and  legitimate  practise,  sanctioned  by  the 
example  of  nature,  most  agreeable  to  popular  taste,  and,  if  you 
like,  supported  by  ancient  precedent  as  well.  No  theory  of 
tragicomedy  or  modern  definition  of  it  is  attempted.  What,  in 
fact,  appears  to  be  the  earliest  French  explanation  of  the 
species,  it  is  interesting  to  note,  is  an  obvious  adaptation  from 
Guarini.  The  preface  of  Mairet's  "  Silvanire "  (1631) — a 
tragicomcdie  pastorale,  by  the  way — in  describing  the  play, 
states :  "  In  regard  to  the  story,  ...  it  is  not  of  two-fold  con- 
stituency, but  mixed,  and  in  subject  it  is  not  simple,  but  com- 
posite.    The  mixture  is  made  of  tragic  and  comic  parts,  in 


59 

such  a  way  that  the  two,  blending  agreeably  together,  have 
finally  a  joyous  and  comic  catastrophe."'^ 

But  by  this  time  the  critical  war  was  already  on  in  France 
between  the  classicists  and  the  independents,  which  was  to 
result  a  quarter  of  a  century  later  in  the  triumph  of  classicism 
and  the  virtual  abandonment  of  tragicomedy.  With  this  ques- 
tion we  are  not  concerned.  It  is  enough  to  note  here  the  out- 
growth of  French  tragicomedy  from  the  traditions  of  the 
medieval  stage,  its  development  in  the  hands  of  Hardy  into  a 
definite  and  independent  dramatic  kind,  its  ascendency  in  pop- 
ular favor  during  the  early  seventeenth  century,  and  its  vari- 
ous analogies  and  points  of  contact  with  the  practise  abroad. 

''  Cp.  Guarini,  above,  p.  ZT-  An  even  closer  imitation  appears  later 
in  connexion  with  the  Cid:  "  Ce  beau  et  divertissant  poeme,  sans  pancher 
trop  vers  la  severite  de  la  tragedie,  ny  vers  le  stile  railleur  de  la  comedie, 
prend  les  beautez  les  plus  delicates  de  I'une  et  de  I'autre :  et  sans  estre 
ny  I'une  ny  I'autre  on  peut  dire  qu'il  est  toutes  les  deux  ensemble  et 
quelque  chose  de  plus."  Georges  de  Scuderi,  Observations  stir  le  Cid, 
1637. 


CHAPTER  III 
The  Beginnings  of  English  Tragicomedy  (1564-1600) 

In  the  preceding  pages  the  various  influences  in  the  his- 
torical growth  of  the  modern  drama  that  contributed  to  the 
ultimate  realization  of  a  dramatic  form  known  as  tragicomedy, 
have  been  noted  and  set  forth,  and  the  early  history  of  the 
new  product  briefly  reviewed  in  Italy,  Spain  and  France. 
Thus  fortified,  it  is  possible  to  approach  the  development  of 
the  subject  in  the  national  drama  of  England,  which  was  the 
last  of  all  to  receive  the  innovations  borne  by  the  tidal  wave 
of  the  Renaissance.  It  is  the  purpose  of  the  present  chapter 
to  deal  with  the  formative  period  of  English  tragicomedy, 
extending  from  1564,  the  approximate  date  of  the  first  ver- 
nacular play  so  named,  to  1600,  a  convenient,  if  somewhat 
arbitrary,  tcruiinns  ad  qucni}  Within  these  limits,  which  set 
off  a  period  when  the  English  drama  concerned  itself  little  with 
dramatic  distinctions  and  proprieties,  tragicomedy  cannot  be 
said  to  have  left  a  blazed  trail.  As  in  the  corresponding  stage 
of  development  abroad,  English  tragicomedies  so-called  of 
this  period  are  few,  sporadic,  and  dissimilar;  so  that  an  at- 
tempt to  trace  the  evolution  of  the  later  developed  product 
from  evidence  afforded  only  by  the  extant  data  dealing  directly 
with  tragicomedy  falls  short.  For  a  more  adequate  under- 
standing of  the  beginnings  of  English  tragicomedy,  it  will  be 
necessary  to  supplement  this  evidence  by  noticing  generally 
the  mingling  of  tragic  and  comic  as  it  appears  in  the  early 
drama,  and  the  relation  of  its  various  aspects  to  the  develop- 
ment of  the  subject. 

As  previously  seen,  the  mingling  of  tragic  and  comic  in  one 
dramatic  piece  came  into  the  Renaissance  vernacular  drama 

^  1600,  while  denoting  no  landmark  in  the  development  of  the  subject, 
may  be  taken  as  the  approximate  date  of  certain  changes  in  the  drama 
that  materially  Teffect  the  growth  of  tragicomedy. 

60 


61 

as  the  direct  outgrowth  of  medieval  tradition,  while  the  appli- 
cation of  the  classical  name  of  tragicomedy  to  denote  the 
mixture  was  due  to  neo-Latin  initiative.  It  is  to  the  fusion  of 
these  two  influences  that  the  first  tragicomedies  in  the  national 
drama  of  England  owe  their  being.  If  we  disregard  the  nu- 
merous moralities  and  other  belated  irregular  forms  that  carry 
on  the  tragicomic  traditions  of  the  medieval  stage,  and  con- 
cern ourselves  only  with  the  plays  actually  denominated  tragi- 
comedies in  the  surviving  portion  of  the  first  real  drama,  our 
foremost  consideration  comprises  three  plays,  "  Damon  and 
Pythias,"  "  Appius  and  Virginia  "  and  the  "  Glass  of  Govern- 
ment." It  will  be  remembered  that  the  earliest  of  these  is  con- 
siderably antedated  by  an  English  neo-Latin  Comocdia  Tragica, 
the  "  Christus  Redivivus"  (1543)  of  Nicholas  Grimald;  and 
also  that  an  undated  redaction  of  a  continental  drama  comi- 
cotragicum,  the  "  Sapientia  Solomonis  "  finds  a  place  in  this 
early  period.-  But  both  are  academic  pi'oductions,  and,  while  of 
considerable  historical  importance,  may  be  omitted  here  so  far 
as  the  national  drama  is  concerned.  It  is  with  the  three  plays 
first  mentioned  that  vernacular  tragicomedy  in  England  begins. 
An  examination  of  them  will  show  how  the  innovation  gained 
its  initial  foothold  on  the  popular  stage. 

The  "  Damon  and  Pythias  "  of  Richard  Edwards,  acted  at 
court  by  the  Chapel  Children  in  1563-64,  serves  as  a  connect- 
ing link  between  the  classical  and  the  popular  plays.^  While 
undivided  into  acts,  devoid  of  chorus,  and  admitting  popular 
and  romantic  elements,  it  treats  a  classical  theme,  is  com- 
paratively independent  of  the  toils  of  the  morality,  and  in 
style  and  diction  shows  traces  of  Roman  drama.  The  prolog 
gives  an  interesting  exposition  of  the  author's  dramatic  creed. 
After  insisting  on  the  observance  of  decorum,  from  which  he 
himself  "  doth  not  swarve,"  he  introduces  his  play  and  ex- 
plains its  title  thus : 

Lo    here    in    Siracusae    th'    auncient    towne    which    once    the    Romaines 
wonne, 

■  See  above,  pp.  23-25, 

^  S.  R.  July  22,   1567,  "ye  tragecall  comodye  of  Damonde  and  Pethyas." 
Printed    1571. 


62 

Here    Dionisius    pallace,    within    whose    courte    this    thing    most    strange 

was  donne. 
Which  matter  mixt  with  myrth  and  care,  a  just  name  to  applie, 
As  seemes  most  fit,  wee  have  it  termed,  a  tragicall  commedie. 

The  play  is  a  "  tragicall  commedie,"  then,  because  the  story 
is  a  "matter  mixt  with  myrth  and  care,"  yet  the  author  has 
previously  taken  pains  to  express  his  allegiance  to  decorum 
and  the  school  of  Horace.  As  Edwards  was  a  scholar,  he  must 
have  been  acquainted  with  neo-Latin  tragicomedies,  which 
probably  served  him  as  a  precedent  for  his  vernacular  inno- 
vation, and  also  for  his  explanation  of  the  mixed  title.  Crude 
as  the  play  is,  its  treatment  of  the  familiar  story  of  Damon 
and  Pythias  is  a  good  example  of  the  averted  tragedy;  the 
serious  interest  consisting  in  the  peril  hanging  over  the  life  of 
Pythias,  which  is  fortunately  warded  off  at  the  end  by  the 
timely  arrival  of  Damon.  Intermixed  with  the  serious  theme 
is  a  run  of  loosely  connected  farce  and  comic  business ;  and 
it  is  usually  taken  for  granted  that  the  classification  of 
"tragicall  commedie"  is  due  to  this  comic  intrusion  in  serious 
matter,  the  mixture  of  "  myrth  and  care."  Alirth,  however, 
was  a  word  used  so  loosely  in  the  early  drama  that  it  need  not 
necessarily  refer  here  to  the  comic  by-plot  ;*  more  likely  it 
relates  to  the  happy  solution  of  the  tragic  situation,  which 
would  render  the  author's  conception  of  tragicomedy  more 
in  keeping  with  that  of  his  probable  models,  the  neo-Latinists. 
In  the  "  Tragicall  Comedie  of  Apius  and  Virginia,"'^  by  R. 
E. — conjectured  to  be  Richard  Bower,  a  Master  of  the  Chapel 
Children — we  have  another  court  play  of  classical  theme, 
probably  produced  about  the  same  time  as  "  Damon  and 
Pythias."  This  piece  is  much  nearer  a  morality  than  the  play 
of  Edwards,  admitting  a  Vice  and  several  personified  abstrac- 
tions among  the  dramatis  persona',  and,  like  that  play,  undi- 
vided into  acts  and  scenes  and  showing  little  of  the  externals 
of  classical  structure.     Furthermore,  the  author  offers  no  ex- 

*  For  example,  the  morality  Pride  of  Life  similarly  advertises  in  the 
prolog  a  "  spelle  of  mirth  and  eke  of  kare,"  yet  contains  no  comic  by- 
play. 

''Entered  S.  R.  July  22,  1567-S  as  a  Tragedy;  printed  1575. 


63 

planation  of  the  mixed  title.  Farcical  scenes  are  freely  inter- 
spersed, but  have  no  connexion  with  the  main  action,  which  is 
wholly  tragic,  consisting  in  the  voluntary  death  of  Virginia  to 
avoid  dishonor  at  the  hands  of  the  wicked  judge  Appius. 
She  is  beheaded,  and  the  head  exhibited ;  but  at  the  close  of 
the  play,  the  glory  of  her  martyred  name  is  inscribed  in  a 
tome  by  "  Memorie,  Justice,  Rewarde  and  Fame,"  while  an 
ignominious  death  overtakes  the  evil-doers.  Thus,  in  spite 
of  the  tragic  ending,  the  play  is  still  a  comedy  in  the  broad 
medieval  interpretation  of  the  word ;  tragical  indeed,  but  a 
comedy  nevertheless,  for  the  morality  idea  of  a  triumphal  spiri- 
tual denouement  is  preserved,  the  wicked  are  punished  and  the 
innocent  sufferer  attains  the  reward  of  the  righteous.  Such 
must  be  the  explanation  of  the  title  "  Tragicall  Comedie." 

Both  the  above  plays  were  popular  performances,  acted 
at  the  court  by  children,  and  of  the  same  general  character 
in  content  and  form.**  The  third  English  "  tragical  comedy " 
is  wholly  different.  The  unique  "  Glasse  of  Gouernement. 
A  tragicall  Comedie  so  entituled,  bycause  therein  are  handled 
aswell  the  rewardes  for  Vertues,  as  also  the  punishment  for 
Vices"  (1575),  the  work  of  the  versatile  Elizabethan  courtier 
and  man  of  letters,  George  Gascoigne,  is  a  belated  follower  of 
the  Prodigal  Son  type  of  school  play.  Apparently  it  was  only 
intended  for  a  closet  drama,  as  it  is  more  a  Calvinistic  trea- 
tise on  education  than  an  acting  play,  and  written  in  prose 
entirely.  In  form  it  is  as  regular  as  it  is  didactic  in  purpose. 
Some  characters  and  situations  are  strongly  reminiscent  of 
Roman  comedy,  while  the  thesis  is  an  exposition  of  the  con- 
trasted lives  of  good  and  evil  doers,  with  the  moral  end  con- 
tinually kept  in  view.  The  plot  is  the  story  of  two  pairs  of 
brothers  who  are  placed  under  the  instruction  of  a  wise  and 
pious  pedagog.  The  younger  two  follow  the  moral  teaching 
they  receive,  and  pursue  the  path  of  virtue,  while  the  elder 

*  With  them  should  be  mentioned  one  other  play,  the  lost  Palamon  and 
Arcyte  of  Richard  Edwards,  acted  before  the  Queen  at  Christ  Church  in 
1566.  Judged  from  the  dramatized  subject,  Chaucer's  Knight's  Tale,  and 
the  account  of  the  performance  that  survives,  it  is  to  be  classed  with 
the  author's  extant  "  tragical  comedy." 


J 


64 

pair  become  incorrigible  and  soon  fall  victims  to  vice.  The 
latter  are  despatched  to  a  neighboring  university  in  the  hope 
of  separating  them  from  their  evil  influences,  but  there  they 
only  continue  their  perverse  ways ;  and  finally  it  is  reported 
that  they  have  reaped  the  wages  of  their  sins.  The  virtuous 
sons,  meanwhile,  have  become,  one  a  secretary  to  the  Land- 
grave and  the  other  a  famous  preacher.  In  this  way  the 
author  works  out  his  moral  thesis  of  the  "  rewardes  for  Ver- 
tues"  and  the  "punishment  for  Vices" — a  double  outcome 
whose  mingled  emotional  effect  is  voiced  in  the  concluding 
speech  of  the  play: 

"  I  thanke  you,  Sir.  My  Masters,  the  common  saying  is,  clap  your 
handes  ;  but  the  circumstance  of  this  wofull  tragicall  comedie  considered, 
I  may  say  iustly  vnto  you  wring  your  handes :  neuerthelesse  a  leaue  it  to 
your  discretion." 

It  is  to  be  noticed  that  Gascoigne's  apology^  for  the  title  term 
does  not  follow  that  of  Edwards.  The  "  Glass  of  Govern- 
ment "  is  a  "  tragicall  Comedie  "  because  it  rewards  virtue  and 
punishes  vice,  the  two-fold  outcome  so  characteristic  of  a 
morality,  and  later  the  underlying  principle  of  satirical  comedy, 
and  which,  in  fact,  is  reminiscent  of  the  Aristotelian  "'  oppo- 
site catastrophe  for  the  good  and  for  the  bad  " — the  ending 
prescribed  by  the  philosopher  for  the  second  kind  of  tragedy.'^ 
It  is  significant  that  our  first  three  English  tragicomedies 
are  all  the  work  of  scholars,  men  who  had  every  opportunity 
to  be  familiar  with  Renaissance  dramatic  activity,  both  at  home 
and  abroad,  in  humanistic  circles  and  among  vernacular  imi- 
tators. Bower  and  Edwards  had  been  in  turn  Masters  of  the 
Children  of  the  Queen's  Chapel,  while  Gascoigne  had  studied 
at  Cambridge  and  fought  in  Holland.  All  undoubtedly  bor- 
rowed the  name  and  the  idea  of  "tragical  comedy"  from 
numanistic  precedent,  which  conceived  of  the  form  only  as  a 
4;pecies  of  comedy  that  for  one  reason  or  another  deserved 
the  qualifying  adjective  "tragical."  Various  evidence  serves 
to  bear  out  the  view  that  the  vernacular  tragicomedies  were 
likewise  regarded  only  as  a  form  of  comedy.  For  example, 
the  title  page  of  the  earliest  edition  of  "  Damon  and  Pythias  " 

'  Above,  p.  3. 


/ 


65    V 

describes  the  play  as  an  "  excellent  Comedie " ;  again,  the 
author  prefaces  the  play  in  the  prolog  with  a  discussion  of 
comedy  writing;  and  finally,  we  know  from  the  contemporary 
opinion  of  Puttenham — later  echoed  by  Meres — that  Edwards's 
reputation  was  as  a  writer  of  "  comedy  and  interlude."  Simi- 
larly, it  is  plain  that  the  idea  of  comedy  was  uppermost  in  the 
mind  of  Gascoigne  in  regard  to  the  "  Glass  of  Government," 
for  both  in  the  prolog  and  in  the  prefaced  argument  he  so  terms 
the  play.  Lastly,  it  has  been  seen  above  that  the  alteration  of 
the  tragic  theme  of  Appius  and  Virginia  for  morality  pur- 
poses had  the  effect  of  conforming  that  play  to  the  broad 
medieval  conception  of  comedy.  Like  instances  of  a  distortion 
of  the  term  in  its  modern  acceptation  are  not  infrequent  in  the 
later  English  moralities.  The  "  Conflict  of  Conscience " 
(1581)  of  Nathaniel  Woodes,  which  ends  in  the  suicide  of 
the  hero,  is  called  an  "  excellent  new  Commedie,"  probably 
by  reason  of  the  repentance  of  the  protagonist  before  his 
death.  "Tyde  taryeth  no  Man"  (1576),  by  George  Wapull, 
calls  itself  a  "  Moste  Pleasant  and  merry  Commody,"  altho 
admitting  a  disastrous  end  for  the  unworthy;  the  same  is 
true  of  the  later  "  most  pleasant  and  merie  new  Comedie,  In- 
tituled, A  Knack  to  knowe  a  Knaue "  (1594);  while  "Old 
Fortunatus,"  tho  ending  in  a  moral  tragedy,  was  printed  in 
1600  as  a  "  Pleasant  Comedie." 

It  must  be  remembered  that  tragedy  and  comedy,  not  to 
speak  of  tragicomedy,  were  slippery  terms  at  best  in  this 
period  of  the  popular  stage.  The  national  drama  that  sprang 
from  the  conflict  of  the  medieval  forms  of  miracle  and  moral- 
ity with  the  revived  classic  models  of  tragedy  and  comedy, 
would  ill  fit  into  the  definite  moulds  defined  for  the  latter  by 
classical  critics.  The  natural  result  was  a  loose  and  careless 
use  of  the  terms  of  classical  nomenclature,  and  a  confused 
and  hazy  idea  of  their  real  meanings.  Many  early  plays  show 
that  often  little  or  no  differentiation  was  made  between  trag- 
edy and  comedy.  Of  the  three  extant  miracle  plays  of  Bishop 
Bale,  printed  in  1538,  two  are  designated  comedies  and  one  a 
tragedy,  but  with  no  apparent  warrant  for  the  distinction. 
Thomas  Preston's  "  Cambyses  "  (S.  R.  1569-70)  is  called  "A 
6 


66 

Lamentable  Tragedie "  in  one  place  and  a  "  Commedy "  in 
another;  while  the  title  of  the  morality  "  xA.ll  for  Money  "  (1578), 
by  Thomas  Liipton,  which  advertises  the  play  as  a  "  ]\Ioral 
and  Pitiful  Comedie,"  is  contradicted  by  the  closing  lines  of 
the  prolog,  where  the  piece  is  styled  "  a  pleasant  tragodie." 
In  the  face  of  so  little  discrimination  in  the  notions  of  tragedy 
and  comedy,  it  will  not  do  to  assume  a  very  sophisticated 
understanding  of  the  term  "  tragical  comedy  "  on  the  part  of 
the  few  who  used  it  during  this  period. 

Before  leaving  the  early  group  of  English  tragicomedies, 
mention  should  be  made  of  one  other  play  of  the  period  which 
clearly  belongs  to  the  same  class,  altho  without  the  title  dis- 
tinction. The  "Promos  and  Cassandra"  (1578)  of  George 
Whetstone,  which  could  lay  claim  to  the  name  of  "  tragical 
comedy  "  with  the  same  propriety  as  "  Damon  and  Pythias," 
is  described  in  the  title  as  "  The  Right  Excellent  and  famous 
Historye,  of  Promos  and  Cassandra;  Deuided  into  two  Com- 
mical  Discourses.  .  .  .  Wherein  is  showne,  The  Ruyne  and 
ouerthrowe,  of  dishonest  practises :  with  the  aduauncement  of 
vpright  dealing."  This  play,  which  takes  its  story  from  Italian 
romance^ — the  same  theme  that  Shakspere  later  developed  in 
"  Measure  for  Measure,"  was  evidently  intended  for  popular 
performance,  altho  there  is  no  record  of  its  presentation.  It 
is  even  freer  from  morality  elements  than  "  Damon  and 
Pythias,"  and  displays  considerably  more  feeling  for  classical 
form  and  regularity,  being  carefully  constructed,  divided  into 
acts,  and  the  whole  separated  into  two  plays,  as  Whetstone 
says  in  the  preface,  for  the  sake  of  decorum.  But  with  all 
the  author's  boasted  observance  of  decorum,  the  serious  theme 
is  accompanied  with  the  usual  medley  of  farce  and  songs 
characteristic  of  every  popular  play;  and,  while  the  author 
evidently  regards  his  production  as  a  comedy,  tragedy  is  im- 
pending thruout.  However,  the  tragic  complications  are 
finally  resolved,  no  deaths  occur,  and  the  play  ends  happily 
in  the   reappearance  of  the  supposedly  murdered  Andrugio, 

'The  Hccatommithi  of  Giraldi,  who  dramatized  the  same  story  in  his 
Epitia  (c.  1562),  a  tragedia  di  lieto  fin.      Above,  p,  30, 


67 

the  pardon  of  Promos,  judged  to  death  by  the  King,  and  a 
general  reconcihation. 

The  most  interesting  thing  in  connexion  with  this  play  is  the 
dedication,  in  which  the  author  sets  forth  his  theory  of  dra- 
matic art — founded  no  doubt  in  part  on  Edwards's  prolog  to 
"Damon  and  Pythias,"  and  suggestive  of  some  of  Sidney's 
later  criticism — and  criticizes  the  state  of  the  contemporary 
drama  generally,  that  of  his  own  country  included.  The  fol- 
lowing passage  from  this  document,  in  which  the  scholarly 
Whetstone  assails  the  inconsistencies  and  irregularities  of  the 
English  stage,  is  worth  quoting  here,  as  a  contemporary  critical 
estimate  of  the  condition  of  the  popular  drama: 

"  The  Englishman  in  this  quallitie  (comedy  making)  is  most  vaine,  in- 
discreete,  and  out  of  order :  he  fyrst  groundes  his  worke  on  impossibilities ; 
then  in  three  howers  ronnes  he  throwe  the  worlde,  marryes,  gets  Children, 
makes  Children  men,  men  to  conquer  kingdomes,  murder  Monsters,  and 
bringeth  Gods  from  Heauen,  and  fetcheth  Diuels  from  Hel.  And  (that 
whicli  is  worst)  their  ground  is  not  so  vnperfect  as  their  workinge  in- 
discreete :  not  waying,  so  the  people  laugh,  though  they  laugh  them  (for 
theyr  follyes),  to  scorne.  Manye  tymes  (to  make  mirthe)  they  make  a 
Clowne  companion  with  a  Kinge ;  in  theyr  graue  Counsels  they  allow  the 
aduise  of  fooles ;  yea,  they  vse  one  order  of  speach  for  all  persons :  a 
grose  Indecorum,  for  a  Crowe  wyll  yll  counterfet  the  Nightingale's  ^sweete 
voice ;  euen  so  affected  speeche  doth  misbecome  a  Clowne.  For,  to  worke 
a  Commedie  kindly,  graue  olde  men  should  instruct,  yonge  men  should 
showe  the  imperfections  of  youth,  Strumpets  should  be  lasciuious,  Boyes 
vnhappy,  and  Clownes  should  speake  disorderlye :  entermingling  all  these 
actions  in  such  sorte  as  the  graue  matter  may  instruct  and  the  pleasant 
delight ;  for  without  this  chaunge  the  attention  would  be  small,  and  the 
likinge  lesse." ' 

Whetstone's  position,  as  voiced  here,  is  well  illustrative  of 
the  distorted  ideas  of  classical  notions  of  dramatic  theory  then 
current  among  many  English  scholarly  playwrights,  which 
disapproved  of  making  a  "  Clowne  companion  with  a  Kinge," 
and  yet  did  not  forbid  the  union  of  tragedy,  comedy,  farce,  and 
other  incongruities  in  the  same  piece.  Both  Whetstone  and 
Edwards,  for  all  their  scholarly  acquaintance  with  classic 
drama  and  vaunted  observance  of  decorum,  leaned  as  much 
toward  the  dramatic  traditions  of  the  medieval  stage.     Such 

°  G.  G.  Smith,  Eliaabethan  Critical  Essays   (1904),  I,  59-60. 


68 

men  were  instrumental  in  founding  the  English  national  drama ; 
learned  playwrights  who  sought  by  intermingling  the  tragic 
and  comic  to  create  a  new  type  of  play  which  would  offer  a 
tempered  mean  between  the  academic  productions,  which  failed 
to  appeal  to  popular  taste,  and  the  more  prevalent  forms  of 
medieval  extraction,  which  seldom  showed  consistent  and 
articulate  dramatic  structure.  To  their  precept  and  practise, 
tragicomedy  in  England  is  indebted  for  its  initial  exemplifica- 
tion. 

While  the  number  of  our  early  so-called  tragicomedies  is 
extremely  limited,  it  must  be  remembered  that  only  a  relatively 
small  proportion  of  the  acted  drama  of  this  period  survives. 
]\Ioreover,  the  mingling  of  kinds  was  not  limited  to  "  tragical 
comedies";  almost  no  play  of  the  popular  stage  is  without 
some  mixture  of  tragic  and  comic.  The  medieval  custom  of 
inserting  disjointed  comic  material  in  tragic  themes  to  enliven 
the  action  and  offset  the  serious  interest,  persisted  thruout  Eliza- 
bethan tragedy,  and  apparently  was  even  associated  with  criti- 
cal conceptions  of  tragicomedy.  Such  plays  as  "  Horestes " 
( 1567)  of  John  Pickering  and  "  Cambyses  "  of  Thomas  Preston 
are  examples  of  what  may  be  called  "  tragi-farce,"  crude 
attempts  at  tragedy  interspersed  with  independent  scenes  of 
pure  farce.  The  title  of  the  latter  play,  which  reads,  "  A 
,  Lamentable  Tragedie,  mixed  full  of  plesant  mirth,"  well  de- 
J  scribes  the  ensuing  action :  two  of  the  eleven  scenes  into  which 
the  piece  naturally  falls  are  pure  farce,  and  connected  with  the 
serious  theme  only  by  the  character  of  the  Vice.  Such  inser- 
tions of  levity  in  the  body  of  a  play  pervade  practically  all 
early  dramas  of  a  serious  cast,  whether  tragedies,  moralities 
or  interludes.  Often  it  is  advertised  in  the  title,  as  in  "  Cam- 
byses," or  in  the  "  Three  Lords  and  Three  Ladies  of  London  " 
(1590),  which  is  a  "Pleasant  and  Stately  ]SIorall  .  .  .  Com- 
mically  interlaced  with  much  honest  Mirth";  and  not  infre- 
quently the  propriety  of  mingling  mirth  with  gravity  is  de- 
fended at  some  length  in  the  prologs.  An  early  instance  of 
the  latter  occurs  in  the  interlude  of  the  "  Nature  of  the  Four 
Elements"  (c.  1510).  The  Messenger  in  the  opening  speech 
remarks : 


69 

But   because    some    folk    be    little    disposed 
To  sadness,  but  more  to  mirth  and  sport, 
This  philosophical  work  is  mixed 
With  merry  conceits,  to  give  men  comfort. 

The  same  reason  for  the  mixture  of  opposites  is  put  forward 
in  the  prolog  to  Upian  Fulwell's  interlude  of  "  Like  Will  to 
Like"  (1568): 

And  because  divers  men  of  divers  minds  be, 
Some  do  matters  of  mirth  and  pastime  require : 
Other  some  are  delighted  with  matters  of  gravity, 
To  please  all  mentis   our  author's   chief  desire. 
Wherefore  mirth  with  measure  to  sadness  is  annexed. 

Again,  "  honest  mirth  "  and  "  godly  mirth  "  are  advertised  re- 
spectively by  the  prologs  of  "The  Longer  thou  livest "  (c. 
1560)  and  "Marie  Magdalene"  (1566)  ;  while  the  anonymous 
interlude  of  "Jack  Juggler"  (1553-58)  apologizes  for  its 
levity  by  quoting  the  following  advice  from  "  Cato  the  wise  " 
in  regard  to  mingling  mirth  and  seriousness : 

Among  thy  careful  business  use  sometime  mirth  and  joy. 
That  no  bodily  work  thy  wits  break  or  'noy. 
For  the  mind   (saith  he),  in  serious  matters  occupied. 
If  it  have  not  some  quiet  mirth  and  recreation 
Interchangeably  admixed,  must  needs  be  soon  wearied. 

Therefore  intermix  honest  mirth  in  such  wise 

That  your  strength  may  be  refreshed,  and  to  labours  sui^ce. 

Similarly  comic  scenes  are  admitted  in  the  sombre  "  Conflict 
of  Conscience,"  for  reasons  that  the  prolog  takes  care  to  state : 

And  though  the  Historic  of  it  selfe  be  too  too  dolorus, 

And  would  constraine  a  man  with  teares  of  blood  his  cheekes  to  wett, 

Yet  to  refresh  the  myndes  of  them  that  be  the  Auditors, 

Our  Author  intermixed  hath,  in  places  fitt  and  meete, 

Some  honest  mirth,  yet  alwaies  ware  Decorvm  to  exceede. 

This  whole  subject  of  "decorum,"  which  was  made  much  of 
by  classicists  and  pseudo-classicists  of  the  day,  deserves  some 
attention,  as  it  is  involved  in  various  ways  with  the  critical 
side  of  tragicomedy.  Decorum  in  the  strict  classical  sense 
meant  the  observance  of  the  various  canons  of  ancient  dra- 
matic art  as  set  forth  by  the  critics  of  the  later  Renaissance, 


70 

such  as  the  unities,  the  rigid  severance  of  dramtic  genres,  the 
different  elements  proper  to  each,  and  more  particularly,  it 
came  to  denote  a  certain  consistency  to  type  and  character — 
kings  should  speak  and  act  as  befitted  their  rank,  soldiers  as 
befitted  theirs,  and  the  same  with  clowns,  bawds,  youths,  and 
the  like.  The  main  charge  brought  by  scholarly  critics  against 
the  English  national  drama,  in  the  relatively  few  places  where 
they  noticed  it  at  all,  was  its  lack  of  decorum  in  one  or  more 
ways,  but  particularly  in  admitting  one  manner  of  speech  to 
all  classes  of  characters,  and  in  mingling  tragic  and  comic. 
Others,  however,  who  also  professea  allegiance  to  decorum, 
apparently  gave  it  a  freer  interpretation.  It  is  seen  above  that 
Woodes  conceives  of  a  decorous  admixture  of  mirth  in  a 
"  dolorus  history."  Edwards,  it  will  be  remembered,  in  the 
prolog  to  his  "  tragical  comedy,"  professes  to  adhere  to  the 
school  of  Horace,  yet  claims  the  right  to  mix  "  myrth  and 
care."  Whetstone,  for  decorum's  sake,  divides  his  "  Discourse 
of  Promos  and  Cassandra  "  into  "  two  Commedies,"  and  goes 
on  to  show  that  the  Englishman  in  his  play-making  is  all  "  out 
of  order  "  and  guilty  of  various  indecorums ;  yet  his  own  play, 
in  its  mixture  of  tragic  and  comic,  is  as  flagrant  a  violation  of 
classical  notions  of  decorum  as  those  of  which  he  accuses  his 
contemporaries.  And  Gascoigne,  while  the  author  of  a  "tragi- 
cal comedy,"  declares  in  his  "  Certain  Notes  of  Instruction  " 
(1575)  that  "to  entermingle  merie  iests  in  a  serious  matter 
is  an  Indeconiiii:'^^ 

It  is  plain  that,  whatever  may  have  been  the  notions  of  tragi- 
comedy held  by  the  first  English  writers  of  it,  the  type  of  play 
cultivated  by  Edwards,  Gascoigne  and  Whetstone  was  not 
regarded  by  them  as  a  mingling  of  kinds  liable  to  the  charge  of 
indecorum.  It  is  rather  "  tragi-farce  "  and  the  indiscriminate 
mixture  of  mirth  in  serious  matter,  so  commonly  vaunted  in 
the  titles  and  prologs  of  the  more  medieval  productions,  against 

"  G.  G.  Smith,  Elizabethan  Critical  Essay,  I,  48.  Gascoigne  repeats  the 
same  idea  in  the  text  of  the  Glass  of  Government  itself:  "let  me  nowe 
see  who  can  shewe  himself e  the  pleasantest  Poet  in  handeling  therof,  and 
yet  you  must  also  therein  obserue  decorum,  for  tryfling  allegories  or 
pleasant  fygures  in  serious  causes  are  not  most  comely."      Act  III,  sc.  3. 


71 


y 


which  critical  utterances  like  those  of  Whetstone  and  Gas- 
coigne  are  directed.  And  it  is  this  manner  of  mingling,  but 
unfortunately  under  the  name  of  tragicomedy,  that,  among 
the  other  shortcomings  of  the  English  stage,  meets  the  scath- 
ing denunciation  of  Sir  Philip  Sidney  in  his  momentous 
"Apology  for  Poetry"  (1581)  : 

"  But  besides  these  grosse  absurdities,  how  all  theyr  Playes  be  neither 
right  Tragedies,  nor  right  Comedies ;  mingling  Kings  and  Clownes,  not 
because  the  matter  so  carrieth  it,  but  thrust  in  Clownes  by  head  and 
shoulders,  to  play  a  part  in  maiesticall  matters,  with  neither  decencie  nor 
discretion :  So  as  neither  the  admiration  and  commiseration,  nor  the 
right  sportfulnes,  is  by  their  mungrell  Tragy-comedie  obtained.  I  know 
Apuleius  did  some-what  so,  but  that  is  a  thing  recounted  with  space  of 
time,  not  represented  in  one  moment :  and  I  knowe  the  Auncients  haue 
one  or  two  examples  of  Tragy-comedies,  as  Plautus  hath  Amphitrio.  But, 
if  we  marke  them  well,  we  shall  find,  that  they  neuer,  or  very  daintily, 
match  Horn-pypes  and  Funeralls.  So  falleth  it  out  that,  hauing  indeed 
no  right  Comedy,  in  that  comicall  part  of  our  Tragedy  we  haue  nothing 
but  scurrility,  vnwoorthy  of  any  chast  eares,  or  some  extreame  shew  of 
doltishnes,  indeed  fit  to  lift  vp  a  loude  laughter,  and  nothing  els  :  where 
the  whole  tract  of  a  Comedy  shoulde  be  full  of  delight,  as  the  Tragedy 
shoulde  be  still  maintained  in  a  well  raised  admiration. "^^ 

This  passage,  the  most  elaborate  and  important  sixteenth 
century  criticism  'of  tragicomedy  in  England,  on  examination, 
seems  to  be  directed  not  against  the  "  tragical  comedies  "  of  the 
type  already  considered,  but  rather  against  such  hybrid  pro- 
ductions as  "  Horestes  "  and  "  Cambyses,"  which  were  much 
more  open  to  the  charge  of  the  hap-hazard  intrusion  of  clowns 
and  the  matching  of  horn-pipes  and  funerals.^^  But  whatever 
manner  of  mingling  kinds  the  critic  had  in  mind,  it  was  "  mun- 
grell Tragy-comedie  "  that  was  forced  to  bear  the  brunt  of  his 
scornful  denunciation;  and  it  is  perhaps  for  this  reason  as 
much  as  for  any  other  that  tragicomedy  by  name,  from  this 

'^  G.   G.   Smith,   Elizabethan   Critical  Essays,   I,    199. 

^  That  Sidney  has  no  quarrel  with  proper  tragicomedy,  but  even  ap- 
proves it,  seems  fu/ther  borne  out  by  a  previous  passage  from  the 
Apology.  Before  examining  the  various  forms  of  poetry,  he  notes  "  that 
some  Poesies  haue  coupled  together  two  or  three  kindes,  as  Tragicall  and 
Comicall,  wher-vpon  is  risen  the  Tragi-comicall."  And  then  goes  on  to 
add :  "  But  that  commeth  all  to  one  in  this  question,  for,  if  seuered  they 
be  good,  the  coniunction  cannot  be  hurtfull."     Ibid.,  I,  175. 


72 

time  to  the  end  of  the  century,  practically  disappears  from  the 
public  stage  in  England.  Such  a  far-reaching  effect  might 
not  be  altogether  out  of  proportion  to  the  wide  influence  that 
the  "  Apology  "  is  known  to  have  exerted  in  scholarly  circles 
for  the  quarter  of  a  century  after  it  was  written.  Thruout 
this  period,  Sidney  is  mentioned,  quoted  and  praised  in  almost 
every  critical  work  of  importance  " ;  and  while  the  "  Apolog}'  " 
was  not  printed  until  1595,  it  had  circulated  in  manuscript 
among  the  learned  of  the  court  for  a  dozen  years  before,  as 
evidenced  by  the  critical  work  both  of  Puttenham  and  Haring- 
ton.  It  would  not  be  surprising,  then,  if  courtly  playwrights, 
by  whom  the  only  preceding  tragicomedies  had  been  written, 
should  have  discontinued  the  use  of  a  term  that  had  met  the 
critical  obloquy  of  the  chief  man  of  letters  of  the  day. 

Sidney's  "  Apology  "  is  the  only  one  of  the  numerous  Eliza- 
bethan critical  essays  to  make  any  mention  of  tragicomedy  at 
all.  Practically  all  the  dramatic  criticism  of  the  period  was 
content  to  confine  its  attention  to  the  recognized  genres  of 
classical  tradition ;  and  England,  unlike  Italy,  Spain  and 
France,  produced  no  defender  of  the  national  drama. 
Whether  or  not  Sidney's  rebuke  to  tragicomedy  put  a  tem- 
porary end  to  its  active  existence  under  that  name,  it  certainly 
had  little  effect  in  discouraging  the  practise  itself;  for,  at  the 
time  when  the  "  Apology "  was  penned,  the  kind  of  tragi- 
comedy that  took  its  point  of  departure  from  "  Damon  and 
Pythias"  was' entering  a  new  period  of  steady  development 
toward  an  ultimate  type  form. 

Our  knowledge  of  the  English  drama  of  the  decade  ante- 
dating our  first  great  dramatist,  John  Lyly,  is  meager;  but 
it  is  evident  that  during  this  period  the  preeminence  on  ilie 

"  As  to  his  influence  in  combatting  the  barbarous  state  of  the  English 
drama,  a  passage  may  be  quoted  from  the  address  to  Sidney's  sister,  the 
Countess  of  Pembroke,  prefixed  by  Samuel  Daniel  to  his  tragedy  of 
Cleopatra   (1594)  : 

Now  when   so   many   Pennes    (like   Speares)    are   charg'd, 

To  chase  away  this  tyrant  of  the  North ; 

Grosse  Barbarisme,  whose  powre  grown   far  inlarg'd 

Was  lately  by  thy  valiant  brothers   worth 

First  found,  encountred,  and  prouoked  forth. 


73 


/ 


public  stage  of  plays  of  everyday  life  and  didactic  purpose 
was  waning  before  the  growing  popularity  of  material  of  a 
more  imaginative  and  entertaining  sort,  viz. :  that  furnished  by 
romance.  The  romantic  element — a.  convenient  term  for  denot- 
ing the  unreal  and  imaginative  in  literary  expression  in  con- 
tradistinction to  the  familiar  and  merely  commonplace — was  to 
sound  the  dominant  note  in  the  English  drama  during  the  last 
quarter  of  the  sixteenth  century.  Its  rise  was  largely  due  to 
the  great  influx  into  England  during  this  time  of  the  romantic 
tales  of  the  Italian  novellieri.  Beginning  with  Painter's  "  Pal- 
ace of  Pleasure"  (1566-67),  the  first  English  collection  of 
novelle,  the  popularity  of  the  new  literary  form  is  attested 
by  the  appearance  of  some  eight  similar  works  in  less  than  a 
■quarter  of  a  century  following.  These  collections  of  popular 
Italian  stories,  reenforced  by  the  interminable  tales  of  medieval 
romance,  furnished  an  inexhaustible  storehouse  of  material 
to  Elizabethan  playwrights,  which  they  were  not  slow  to  turn 
to  account.  Thus  may  be  explained  the  predominance  of  the 
romantic  note  during  this  period  of  the  popular  drama.  Its 
importance  in  the  development  of  our  subject  is  evident  at  once. 
The  ruling  spirit  of  romance  is  the  very  essence  of  tragicomedy. 
Foreign  scenes,  strange  adventure,  heroic  exploit,  impend-  / 
ing  danger,  love  beset  with  difficulty,  idealized  women;  all  are 
stock  romantic  elements  that  offer  every  opportunity  for  a 
blending  of  tragic  and  comic.  While  often  purely  tragic,  the 
.prevalent  type  of  a  romantic  plot  follows  rather  the  mould  of 
tragedy  averted :  heroes  overcome  the  dangers  that  confront 
them,  fortune  smiles  on  youth  and  valor,  and  the  checkered 
course  of  romantic  love  is  naturally  a  tragicomedy.^^  As  an 
influence,  then,   in' the  development  of   intermediate   drama, 

"  Cp.  the  figurative  sense  in  which  the  word  is  applied  by  Nash  to 
Sidney's  Astrophel  and  Stella  in  his  Preface  (1591)  to  the  same: 
"  Gentlemen  ...  let  not  your  surfeted  sight,  new  come  from  such  puppet 
play,  think  scorne  to  turn  aside  into  this  Theater  of  pleasure,  for  here 
you  shal  find  a  paper  stage  streud  with  pearle,  an  artificial  heau'n  to 
ouershadow  the  fair  frame,  &  christal  wals  to  encounter  your  curious  eyes, 
while  the  tragicommody  of  loue  is  performed  by  starlight."  G.  G.  Smith, 
Elizabethan  Critical  Essays,  II,  223.  Cp.  also  tragical  Comedie  as  used 
by  Greene,  below,  p.  82. 


74 

the  contribution  of  romance  is  quite  as  important  as  that  com- 
ing from  the  tradition  of  the  medieval  stage. 
-  Curiously  enough,  the  romantic  note  finds  its  first  expression 
in  English  drama  in  the  form  of  an  adaptation  of  the  first  con- 
tinental vernacular  tragicomedy,  the  "  Celestina  "  (1502).^^ 
This  popular  Spanish  production  is  the  source  of  "  Calisto  and 
Meliboea,  A  new  comodye  in  englysh  in  maner  Of  an  enter- 
lude,"  which  was  issued  anonymously  from  the  press  of  John 
Rastell  about  1525,  some  half  century  before  the  romantic 
note  entered  England  in  force.  Noticeable  at  once  is  the  fact 
that  the  English  adaptor  does  not  take  over  the  genre  title  of 
the  original,  probably  because  he  has  stripped  his  source  of  the 
features  on  which  its  classification  of  tragicomedy  was  based. 
For  the  English  play  is  only  a  condensed  version  of  a  part  of 
the  original,  which  is  further  altered  for  moral  purposes  by  a 
complete  reconstruction  of  the  denouement.  A  sudden  repen- 
tance on  the  part  of  the  heroine  forestalls  the  tragic  part  of 
the  action,  so  that  the  overwhelming  catastrophe  of  the  Spanish 
piece  is  completely  avoided,  and  the  play  becomes  a  moral  in- 
terlude, closing  with  a  long  "  exhortacyon  to  vertew." 

On  the  other  hand,  the  **  tragical  Comedie  of  Calistus," 
which  years  later  called  forth  the  following  denunciation  from 
the  author  of  the  Puritan  tract,  "  A  second  and  third  blast  of 
of  retrait  from  plaies  and  Theaters"  (1580),^^  is  probably 
some  later  version  of  the  same  model : 

"  The  nature  of  these  Comedies  are,  for  the  most  part,  after  one  manner 
of  nature,  like  the  tragical  Comedie  of  Calistus ;  where  the  bawdresse 
Scelestina  inflamed  the  maiden  Melibeia  with  her  sorceries." 

And  it  seems  to  be  a  literal  translation  of  the  original  that  is 
licensed  to  print  in  an  entry  on  the  Stationers'  Register,  Octo- 
ber 6,  1598,  as  the  subtitle  closely  follows  that  of  the  1501  edi- 
tion of  the  Spanish  play  •}' 

"  Above,  p.  45. 

"Reprinted  in  the  Roxburghe  Library,  English  Drama  and  Stage  (1869). 
The   pamphlet    has    been    assigned    to    Anthony    Munday. 

"  Comedia  de  Calisto  y  Melibea — la  qiial  contiene  demas  de  su  agradable 
y  dulce  estito  viuchas  sentencias  filosofales  e  avisos  mui  necessaries  para 
mancebos,  mostrandoles  los  enganos  que  estan  encerrados  en  siruicntcs  y 
alcahuetas.     Seville   ed.,    1501    and  later. 


75 

"  Entred  ...  a  booke  intituled  The  tragicke  Comedye  of  Celestina. 
wherein  are  discoursed  in  most  pleasant  stile  manye  Philosophicall  sen- 
tences and  advertisementes  verye  necessarye  for  younge  gentlemen  Dis- 
coveringe  the  sleightes  of  treacherous  servantes  and  the  subtile  cariages 
of   filthye   bawdes."^* 

From  "  Calisto  and  Meliboea "  there  is  a  long  interval  of 
some  thirty  to  forty  years  before  the  romantic  element  reap- 
pears in  the  English  vernacular  drama ;  and  it  is  chiefly  in  the 
early  tragicomedies  that  it  finds  its  next  expression.  Edwards's 
"  Damon  and  Pythias,"  his  lost  "  Palamon  and  Arcyte," 
Bower's  "  Appius  and  Virginia,"  unmistakably  hark  back  to 
classical  or  medieval  romance ;  while  the  plots  of  Whetstone's 
"  Promos  and  Cassandra  "  and  Wilmot's  tragedy  of  "  Tancred 
and  Gismunda,"  find  a  source  in  the  romantic  stories  of  Italian 
novel.  The  close  connexion  that  plays  of  romantic  theme 
bear  to  tragicomedy  continues  to  be  evident  in  the  few  extant 
specimens  of  the  less  known  predecessors  of  the  romantic 
drama.  "Common  Conditions"  (1570-76)  and  "Sir  Clyo- 
mon  and  Sir  Clamydes  "  (1570-84)  are  two  dramatized  ro- 
mances of  this  sort,  which  display  thruout  the  element  of  im- 
pending but  finally  averted  tragedy  in  the  dangers  and  diffi- 
culties, fighting  and  rescues  that  befall  the  fortunes  of  amorous 
knights  and  distressed  ladies  before  they  are  conducted  to  a 
propitious  close.  And  the  sole  surviving  court  entertainment 
of  the  period,  the  "  Rare  Triumphs  of  Love  and  Fortune  " 
(c.  1582),  likewise  presents  a  romantic  love  theme  involving 
the  usual  element  of  distress  and  difficulty.  It  is  an  obvious 
reference  to  plays  of  this  sort  that  occurs  in  Gosson's  "  Playes 
Confuted  in  fine  Actions  "  (1582)  : 

"  Sometime  you  shall  see  nothing  but  the  aduentures  of  an  amorous 
knight,  passing  from  countrie  to  countrie  for  the  loue  of  his  lady,  en- 
coutring  many  a  terible  monster  made  of  broune  paper,  &  at  his  retorne, 
is  so  wonderfully  changed,  that  he  can  not  be  knowne  but  by  some  posie 
in  his  tablet,  or  by  a  broken  ring,  or  a  handkircher,  or  a  piece  of  a 
cockle  shell,  what  learne  you  by  that?"" 

^'  A  previous  entry  in  the  Stationers'  Register,  Feb.  24,  1591,  of  "A  booke 
entituled  Lacelestina  Comedia  in  Spanishe,"  further  attests  the  wide  popu- 
larity of  this  well  known  production  in  England  as  elsewhere.  For  the 
influence  of  the  Celestina  in  England,  see  A.  S.  W.  Rosenbach,  Shakspere 
Jahrbuch  (1903),  XXXIX,  43  ff. 

"  Roxburghe  Library,  English    Drama  and  Stage   (1S69),  p.   181. 


v\ 


76  n' 

Some  further  idea  of  the  vogue  of  the  drama  of  romance 
during  these  years,  and  the  material  upon  which  it  was 
founded,  is  furnished  by  the  titles  of  non-extant  plays.  Out 
of  a  list  of  over  sixty  productions  mentioned  in  the  "  Minutes 
of  the  Revels  at  Court  "  as  acted  between  1571  and  1584,  some 
fifteen  or  twenty,  judged  by  their  titles,  were  surely  dramatized 
romances.  Certainly  such  names  as  ''  Paris  and  Vienna," 
"  Cloridon  and  Radiamanta,"  "  Predor  &  Lucia,"  "  Herpetulus, 
the  blew  knighte,"  "  the  Solitarie  Knight,"  "  the  Knight  in  the 
Burnyng  Rock,"  "  Philemon  &  philecia,"  "  Percius  &  Antho- 
miris,"  "  three  Systers  of  Mantua,"  "  Duke  of  Millayn  and  the 
Marques  of  IMantua,"  "  Portio  and  Demorantes,"  "  Phillyda 
&  Choryn,"  "  Felix  &  Philiomena,"  are  redolent  of  romance, 
both  medieval  and  Italian.  Many  of  these,  it  is  safe  to  as- 
sume, must  have  been  tragicomedies — whether  by  name  or  not 
— of  the  type  of  the  averted  tragedy.  This,  at  least,  may  be 
said  with  assurance  of  "  Paris  and  Vienna,"  if  it  -followed — as 
it  certainly  did — the  medieval  romance  of  that  name  pub- 
lished by  Caxton  in  1485. 

At  all  events,  it  is  plain  that  the  romantic  element,  which 
came  to  predominate  in  the  English  drama  by  1580,  is  so  closely 
associated  with  the  basic  principle  of  tragicomedy  that  the 
future  preparation  for  the  form  is  to  be  sought  in  the  course 
traced  by  this  type  of  material.  The  indiscriminate  mingling 
of  tragic  and  comic,  characteristic  of  other  forms  of  the  pop- 
ular drama,  becomes  now  a  matter  of  secondary  importance  in 
the  development  of  the  subject  beside  the  more  unified  blending 
of  the  two  elements  furnished  by  the  drama  of  romance.  From 
1580  to  the  close  of  the  century  the  mixed  drama  of  the  latter 
kind  is  chiefly  exemplified  in  the  work  of  Lyly,  Greene,  and 
lastly  Shakspere. 

From  the  little  that  may  be  ascertained  of  the  dramatic 
creed  of  John  Lyly,  it  seems  that  he  occupies  a  medial  place — 
not  unlike  his  best  predecessors,  Edwards  £nd  Whetstone — 
between  the  classical  and  the  popular  schools.  Neither  in 
precept  nor  practise  does  he  endorse  the  rigid  severance  of 
tragedy  and  comedy  that  Sidney  and  other  classicists  of  the 
time  were  enjoining,  nor  does  he  follow  the  careless  jumbling 


77 

of  species  of  most  of  his  forebears.  If  he  is  not  wholly  in  sym- 
pathy with  the  excessive  freedom  of  the  EngHsh  popular  stage, 
he  turns  it  to  good  account  in  his  own  practise  by  mingling 
all  possible  elements  of  the  contemporary  drama — history, 
myth,  farce,  comedy,  tragedy,  pastoral — and  yet  with  such 
skill  that  the  mixture  is  not  incongruous.  Doubtless  no  one 
dramatic  form  could  please  the  cosmopolitan  taste  of  his  Eliz- 
abethan audience,  and  hence  he  blended  all.  "  At  our  exer- 
cises," he  declares  in  the  prolog  to  "  Alidas  "  (1589),  "  Soul- 
diers  call  for  Tragedies,  their  obiect  is  bloud :  Courtiers  for 
Commedies,  their  subiect  is  loue ;  Countriemen  for  Pastoralles, 
Shepheards  are  their  Saintes.  ...  If  wee  present  a  mingle- 
mangle,  ovir  fault  is  to  be  excused,  because  the  whole  worlde 
is  become  an  Hodge-podge."  The  prolog  to  "  Endimion " 
(1585)  likewise  waives  all  claim  to  dramatic  regularity:  "  Wee 
present  neither  Comedie,  nor  Tragedie,  nor  storie,  nor  anie 
thing,  but  that  whosoeuer  heareth  may  say  this.  Why  heere  is 
a  tale  of  the  Man  in  the  Moone."  And  in  the  "  Prolog  at  the 
Black  Friers"  of  "Alexander  and  Campaspe  "  (1580)  occurs 
an  echo  of  the  morality  custom  of  defending  the  insertion  of 
mirth  in  serious  matter :  "  We  haue  mixed  mirth  with  counsell, 
and  discipline  with  delight,  thinking  it  not  amisse  in  the  same 
garden  to  sowe  pot-hearbes,  that  we  set  flowers." 

So  much  for  Lyly's  confessed  irregularity  as  a  playwright. 
With  all  the  versatility  that  characterizes  his  art,  it  is  notice- 
able that  he  studiously  refrains  from  touching  on  a  tragic 
theme.  Yet,  amid  all  the  allegory,  myth,  pastoral  and  romance 
with  which  he  deals,  some  intrusion  of  tragic  matter  is  unavoid- 
able. In  "Endimion,"  "Midas,"  "  Gallathea "  and  "Love's 
]\Ietamorphoses,"  the  lightness  of  pure  comedy  is  considerably 
tempered  with  serious  incident  and  situation,  so  that  the  action 
at  times  approaches  the  gravity  of  real  tragedy.-*'  But  of  these 
plays,  none  sufficiently  approaches  the  cast  of  tragicomedy  to 

^  For  example,  Endimion  condemned  to  "  sleep  out  his  youth  and 
flowering  time,"  and  the  changing  of  Bogoa  into  a  tree ;  Haebe  condemned 
to  be  sacrificed  in  Gallathea;  Midas'  danger  of  starvation  by  the  golden 
gift ;  and  the  slaughter  of  Fidelia  and  the  wasting  of  Erisichthon  by 
famine  in  Love's  Metamorphoses.     Cp.  Bond,  Jolin  Lyly  (1902),  II,  261. 


78 

deserve  more  than  passing  notice  as  contributing  to  the  devel- 
opment of  the  form.  A  more  historical  interest,  at  any  rate, 
is  furnished  by  "  Alexander  and  Campaspe,"  which,  while  first 
printed  as  a  "  Comedie  "  in  1584,  in  the  second  quarto  of  1591 
is  given  the  distinctive  title  of  "  tragicall  Comedie  "-^  the  first 
known  instance  of  a  reappearance  of  the  term  in  the  drama 
since  the  "  Glass  of  Government  "  sixteen  years  before.  This 
play,  while  admitting  no  situations  tragic  in  themselves,  is  per- 
vaded thruout  with  a  general  atmosphere  of  seriousness,  which 
must  have  given  rise  to  the  mixed  title ;  the  tragic  interest  con- 
sisting in  the  uncertain  fate  hanging  over  the  fortunes  of  the 
two  lovers,  Appeles  and  Campaspe,  wdiich  at  the  end  is  unex- 
pectedly given  a  propitious  outcome  by  i\lexander's  renuncia- 
tion of  his  love  in  favor  of  his  humble  rival.  There  is  no 
evidence  to  show  that  Lyly  himself  ever  conceived  of  this  play 
— or  of  any  of  his  others — as  a  tragicomedy ;  and,  moreover, 
about  the  time  the  second  quarto  of  "  Alexander  and  Cam- 
paspe "  appeared,  Lyly's  active  dramatic  career  was  ending. 
It  forms,  however,  the  one  link  connecting  his  work  to  pro- 
fessed tragicomedy.  His  contribution  otherwise  to  the  devel- 
opment of  the  form,  while  not  considerable,  is  important  his- 
torically in  the  impetus  that  his  example  gave  to  the  vogue  of 
the  romantic  drama. 

Savoring  less  of  the  court,  and  more  broadly  expressive  of 
the  distinct  national  qualities  of  the  popular  stage,  are  the 
plays  of  Robert  Greene,  which  form  the  next  step  in  the 
advancement  of  our  subject.  (Greene's  plays,  in  one  way  or 
another,  are  all  illustrative  of  the  mingling  of  tragic  and 
comic  so  characteristic  of  heroic  and  sentimental  romance, 
broadly  generalized,  they  may  be  said  to  represent  a  tempered 
mean  between  IMarlowesque  tragedy  on  the  one  hand,  and 
Lylian  comedy  on  the  other.  None  reaches  the  height  of  actual 
tragedy,  yet  none  is  devoid  of  a  distinct  tragic  impulse.  And 
in  theory  as  well  as  practise,  as  will  he  shown  later,  the  author 
appears  to  consider  the  mingling  of  tones  the  working  prin- 

^  The  play  was  similarly  entitled  in  Blount's  1632  edition  of  Sixe  Court 
Comedies,  and  so  classified  generally  thruout  the  seventeenth  and  eigh- 
teenth centuries. 


79 

ciple  of  all  art.  For  these  reasons,  Greene's  contribution  to 
tragicomedy  is  the  most  important  that  the  form  receives 
before  the  seventeenth  century,  as  a  cursory  examination  of 
his  plays  will  show. 

Even  the  romantic  comedies,  "  The  Honourable  Historic  of 
frier  Bacon,  and  frier  Bongay"  (c.  1589)  and  "A  Pleasant 
conceyted  Comedie  of  George  a  Greene,  the  Pinner  of  Wake- 
field "  (1588-92),  are  not  without  a  certain  definite  tragic 
admixture.  Both  plays  admit  violent  deaths ;  but  in  both  cases 
the  tragic  overtakes  subordinate  characters,  and  is  of  no  par- 
ticular notice,  neither  playing  any  part  in  the  main  action  nor 
serving  any  purpose  in  sustaining  the  plot.--  On  the  other 
hand,  the  extravagant  romances  of  "  The  Comicall  Historic  of 
Alphonsus,  King  of  Aragon "  (c.  1589)  and  "The  Historic 
of  Orlando  Furioso  "  (c.  1591)  are  sufifused  with  tragic  action, 
and  yet  end  happily  for  their  heroic  protagonists.  The  char- 
acter of  Alphonsus  is  a  crude  imitation  of  the  Marlowesque 
type  of  conquering  hero,  whose  course  is  left  besmeared  with 
blood;  while  Orlando  is  a  knight  of  chivalric  romance,  who 
kills  his  rivals,  goes  mad,  tears  a  shepherd  to  pieces,  and  per- 
form^'other  deeds  of  violence.  Both  present  the  machinery 
and  spectacular  horrors  of  a  popular  tragedy  of  blood ;  yet  the 
conquering  successes  of  the  heroes  are  unbroken  by  catas- 
trophe, their  fortunes  are  brought  to  a  propitious  close,  and 
the  final  wind-up  of  their  stormy  careers  is  a  marriage  and 
reconciliation.-^  With  the  "  Looking  Glasse  for  London  and 
England"  (1594),  the  peculiar  production  that  Greene  wrote 
in  conjunction  with  Lodge,  w^e  return  to  a  medley  of  the  later 
morality  type,  whose  chief  claim  to  our  attention  is  due  to  the 

^  In  Friar  Bacon,  the  double  tragedy  overtaking  the  two  young  scholars, 
who  kill  each  other  after  beholding  in  Bacon's  magic  glass  the  death  of 
their  fathers ;  and  in  George  a  Greene,  the  killing  of  Sir  Gilbert  Arm- 
strong by  the  hero. 

^  While  both  plays  were  printed  as  Histories,  there  is  record  in  Dresden, 
July  9,  1626,  of  the  performance  of  an  English  play  called  a  Tragi- 
comcedia  von  einem  Konigk  in  Arragona,  which  is  probably  to  be  identified 
with  Greene's  Comicall  History  on  the  same  subject.  See  Creizenach, 
Die  Shauspiele  der  englischen  Komodianten  {Deutsche  National-Litteratur, 
1889,  XXIII),  p.  XXXV. 


80 

fact  that  the  manuscript  title  page  of  a  contemporary  quarto 
edition  styles  the  play  "  Tr.  Com.,"  an  evident  abbreviation  for 
"  Tragical  Comedy."-*  The  play  is  an  exposition  of  the  prev- 
alent vices  of  London  and  their  tragic  consequences,  repre- 
sented thru  the  mirror  of  the  story  of  Nineveh  and  the  life  of 
its  wicked  king  Rasni.  Moral  exhortations  to  repentance,  de- 
livered thruout  by  the  prophet  Oseas,  are  unavailing;  until 
finally,  Jonah  appears — cast  out  of  a  whale  upon  the  stage — 
who  issues  a  warning  to  the  inhabitants  that  prevails,  and 
then  is  the  conversion  and  repentance  of  Nineveh  brought  about. 
As  the  play  thus  roughly  fits  into  the  mould  of  the  medieval 
play  of  serious  theme  and  moral  triumph,  its  chance  classi- 
fication as  a  tragicomedy  must  be  accounted  for  in  that  way. 
So  considered,  it  belongs  with  "  Appius  and  Mrginia  "  and  the 
"  Glass  of  Government." 

But  by  far  Greene's  most  notable  connexion  with  tragi- 
comedy is  furnished  by  "  The  Scottish  Historic  of  lames  the 
fourth"  (1598),  a  play  which  lacks  only  the  genre  name  to  be 
the  most  important  landmark  in  the  whole  formative  period 
of  English  tragicomedy.  In  other  respects,  it  occupies  a  por- 
tion quite  analogous  to  that  of  the  "  Bradamante  "  in  France. 
Far  from  being  a  history  at  all,  the  play  offers  a  sentimental 
tale  of  romantic  love,  borrowed  from  Giraldi's  "  Hecatom- 
mithi,"  and  adapted  to  a  pseudo-historical  setting.  As  an 
interesting  sidelight  on  comparative  tragicomedy,  it  is  worth 
while  to  notice  that  Giraldi  himself  dramatized  the  same 
romance  in  his  "Arrenopia"  (1553),  one  of  his  confessed 
tragedies  di  licto  fin.-^  While  differing  considerably  in  treat- 
ment, the  two  plays  present  the  same  tragicomic  plot,  which  in 
the  English  version,  briefly  outlined,  is  this :  King  James  of 

-*A 

Looking  Glasse  for  Loudon   and   England 

Tr.   Com. 

Geo.  .  .  .  By  .  .  .  Smythcrs 

Titos  Lodge  and  Robert  Green 

1398 

See  J.  C.  Collins's  Greene,  I,  14:2. 

*'  Above,  p.  30.  The  relation  of  the  two  plays  is  pointed  out  by  Crei- 
zenach,   Anglia    (1885),   VIII,   419. 


81 

Scotland,  cherishing  an  unrighteous  passion  for  Ida,  the 
daughter  of  the  Countess  of  Arran,  thinks  to  obtain  her  by 
ridding  himself  of  his  own  wife,  the  Queen  Dorothea.  An 
attempt  is  made  to  murder  Dorothea  by  the  king's  hired  as- 
sassin Jacques,  who — it  is  supposed — ^accomplishes  his  pur- 
pose. To  avenge  her  dishonor,  the  King  of  England  and  the 
revolting  Scottish  peers  declare  war  on  James ;  but  the  battle 
is  averted  by  the  timely  appearance  of  the  supposedly  murdered  • 
queen,  who,  by  her  intervention,  brings  about  a  reconciliation, 
forgives  her  repentant  husband — who  meanwhile  has  been 
thwarted  in  his  designs  on  Ida  by  her  marriage  with  another — 
and  is  happily  restored  to  her  throne.  Here  the  tragic  interest,  / 
instead  of  being  confined  to  an  isolated  scene  of  secondary  t/ 
concern,  as  in  "  Friar  Bacon "  and  "  George  a  Greene,"  or 
taking  the  form  or  a  series  of  slaughters,  as  in  "  Alphonsus  " 
and  "  Orlando  Furioso,"  is  interwoven  with  the  main  plot,  and, 
moreover,  is  happily  averted  in  the  end.  The  result  is  a  per- 
fected form  of  tragicomedy  not  again  equalled  until  the  time 
of  Beaumont  and  Fletcher.-^^ 

As  a  playwright,  Greene,  unlike  his  chief  predecessors, 
wrote  without  any  well  defined  precepts  of  his  art,  as  his  free- 
dom and  originality  of  treatment  well  attest.  Yet  from  his 
practise  may  be  deduced  at  least  two  general  principles  that 
appear  to  form  his  working  basis :  first,  the  happy  ending, 
whatever  the  theme;  and  second,  a  tragic  interest  in  every 
play.  And  in  these  two  respects  he  is  consistent  in  his  prose 
romances  as  well,  where,  moreover,  he  again  and  again  ex- 
presses the  general  idea,  both  in  prefatory  matter  and  text, 
that  tragedy  and  comedy  should  go  hand  in  hand.-"     Yet  in 

^*  As  tragicomedies  Shakspere's  early  plays  all  fall  short  of  James  IV. 
See  below,  p.  87. 

^  Some  examples  are :  "  So  (right  Honorable)  I  haue  mixed  melan- 
cholic with  Musicke,  and  tempered  the  brawles  of  the  Planets  with 
pleasaunt  though  tragical  histories."  Epistle  to  Planetomachia  (1585), 
Grosart's  Greene,  V,  7-8 ;  "  Remaining  thus  quiet,  though  not  satisfied, 
fortune  willing  after  so  sharpe  a  Catastrophe,  to  induce  a  comicall  con- 
clusion, tempered  hir  storme  with  this  pleasant  calme."  Perymedes  (1588), 
Ibid.,  VII,  51;  "  Fortime  who  had  wrought  this  tragedie,  intending  to 
shewe  that  her  frunt  is  as  full  of  fauours  as  of  frownes  ;   and  that  shee 

7 


82 

spite  of  these  noticeable  traits  both  of  practise  and  theory,  it 
is  doubtful  if  Greene  had  any  conception  of  tragicomedy  as 
a  dramatic  species.  Even  the  terms  tragedy  and  comedy  he 
steadily  avoids  using  to  denote  his  unaided  plays ;  all  are 
"  histories."  And  in  his  prose  romances,  his  use  of  the  two 
terms  is  frequently  indicative  that  he  attached  pretty  loose 
ideas  to  them.  For  example,  in  one  place,  the  happy  discovery 
that  two  combatants  are  father  and  son  he  calls  a  "  straunge 
Tragedie";-'  on  the  other  hand,  the  disclosure  that  Pandosto 
was  lusting  after  his  own  daughter  is  described  as  a  "  comicall 
euent,"-^  and  much  the  same  chaotic  notion  of  the  word  is 
implied  by  the  title  of  "  Comicall  History,"  which  adorns  the 
"  Alphonsus."  A  similar  looseness  of  meaning  characterizes 
the  sole  instance  in  all  Greene's  work  in  which  the  term  "  trag- 
ical comedy  "  appears,  as  we  find  it  used  figuratively  in  the 
following  passage  from  the  "Garde  of  Fancie  "  (1587): 

"  Melitta  seeing  y*  Cupid  began  to  fauour  the  cause  of  his  clients,  in 
giuing  them  such  fit  opportunitie  to  discouer  their  cares,  went  her  waie, 
leauing  Gwydonius  the  first  man  to  plaie  his  part  in  this  tragical  Comedie, 
who  seeing  his  goddesse  thus  surprised  with  sicknesse,  was  so  galled  with 
griefe,  etc."  ^ 

The  expression  as  employed  here  evidently  has  reference  to 
the  plot  of  the  romance,  which  is  only  a  harmless  love  diffi- 
culty ;"°  yet  the  passage  is  interesting  as  showing  that  Greene 
was  certainly  acquainted  with  the  "  tragical  comedies  "  of  his 
predecessors,  if  he  did  not  adopt  the  innovation  in  his  own 
dramatic  nomenclature.^^ 

holdes  a  dimple  in  her  cheeke,  as  she  hath  a  wrinckle  in  her  brow,  began 
thus  in  a  Comicall  vaine  to  bee  pleasant."  Greenes  Neuer  too  Late 
(1590),  Ibid.,  VIII,  60;  "Pandosto  .  .  ,  moued  with  these  desperate 
thoughts,  he  fell  into  a  melancholic  fit,  and  to  close  vp  the  Comedie  with 
a  Tragicall  stratageme,  he  slewe  himselfe."  Pandosto  (1588),  Ibid.,  IV, 
317- 

"^Ibid.,  IV,   192. 

"^Ibid.,  IV,  317. 

'^Ibid.,  IV,  98. 

^Compare  the  figurative  use  of  the  word  by  Nash,  above,  p.  ~2,.  n.  14. 

''  The  same  can  be  said  of  the  dramatist  Thomas  Kyd,  if  indeed  the 
authorship  of  the  tragedy  of  Soliman  and  Pcrseda  (1588)  is  correctly  as- 
signed to  him.  In  Act  V,  sc,  2,  of  that  play  occurs  the  following  figurative 
use  of  the  genre  name : 


83 

As  previously  noticed,  Greene's  unaided  plays  all  bear  the 
popular  title  of  "  history,"  a  term  usually  only  implying  that 
the  subject  matter  was  some  sort  of  narrative.  This  con- 
venient and  indefinite  term  seems  to  have  had  a  great  vogue 
at  this  period  of  the  drama  as  the  proper  designation  for  all 
sorts  of  popular  plays.  Of  the  fifty-three  non-extant  pla^ 
entered  in  the  "Minutes  of  the  Court  Revels"  between  1576 
and  1584,  twenty-nine  are  "histories."  Further  evidence  of 
the  prevalence  of  this  title,  beside  giving  an  interesting  hint 
of  the  irregular  character  of  such  plays,  is  furnished  by  a 
dialog  from  the  contemporary  "  First  Fruits"  (1578)  of  John 
Florio : 

"  G.  After  dinner  we  will  go  see  a  play. 

H.  The  plays  that  they  play  in  England  are  not  right  comedies. 

T.  Yet  they  do  nothing  else  but  play  every  day. 

H.  Yea,  but  they  are  neither  right  comedies  nor  right  tragedies. 

G.  How  would  you  name  them  then  ? 

H.  Representations   of  histories  without   any  decorum."  " 

Even  the  classical  critic,  William  Webbe,  in  his  "  Discourse 
of  English  Poetry"  (1586),  appears  to  recognize  plays  of  this 
name  as  deserving  a  place  with  comedy  and  tragedy : 

"  Though  there  be  many  sortes  of  poeticall  wrytings,  and  Poetry  is  not 
debarred  from  any  matter  .  .  .  yet  ...  I  may  comprehende  the  same 
in  three  sortes,   which  are   Comical!,  Tragicall,   Historiall."  ^' 

It  is  obvious  that  the  broad  use  of  "  history  "  to  denote  plays 
of  no  relation  to  the  chronicles  arose  from  the  need  of  classify- 
ing the  great  mass  of  irregular  productions  that  were  neither 
right  tragedies  on  the  one  hand,  nor  right  comedies  on  the 
other,  just  as  similar  circumstances  in  Spain  about  the  same 
time  were  giving  rise  to  the  adoption  of  the  term  comedia 
as  a  common  classification  for  all  plays  of  the  national  drama.^^ 

Sol.     Heere    ends    my    deere    Erastns   tragedie, 
And  now  begins  my  pleasant  Comedie  ; 
But  if  Perseda  vnderstand  these  newes, 
Our  seane  will  prooue  but  tragicomicall. 

^-  Collier,  II,  426.  n. 

^  G.  G.  Smith,  Elizabethan  Critical  Essays.  I,  249. 

**  It  may  be  recalled  here  that  some  of  the  early  neo-Latin  plays  were 
classified    as    tragicomedies    because    they    were    "  histories,"       Above,    pp. 


84 

If  Greene's  plays  may  be  taken  as  representative  of  the  non- 
extant  mass  of  "  histories  "  of  the  time,  it  is  evident  that  the 
term  was  frequently  only  a  more  popular  name  for  romantic 
tragicomedy. 

It  has  been  seen  that  Greene's  treatment  of  romance  ma- 
terial, whether  as  drama  or  novel,  all  betrays  a  more  or  less 
conscious  mingling  of  tragic  and  comic,  and  that  in  one  play, 
"  James  IV,"  the  two  motives  are  combined  in  a  way  antici- 
patory of  the  later  developed  form  of  tragicomedy.  Before 
considering  the  final  contribution  of  romance  to  the  prepara- 
tion of  the  subject  in  the  romantic  comedies  of  Shakspere  at 
the  close  of  the  century,  we  may  first  glance  at  a  few  anoma- 
lous plays  of  the  same  period  that  deserve  some  attention  as 
intermediate  drama  of  like  character,  all  of  which  are  of  un- 
certain date  and  most  of  uncertain  authorship. 

Chief  among  plays  of  this  group  is  the  long  popular  and 
much  discussed  "  Mucedorus,"  a  professed  comedy,  but  pre- 
senting all  sorts  of  romantic  adventures  of  tragicomic  cast 
and  even  admitting  death.  A  distressed  princess  is  first  beset 
by  a  bear  and  next  by  a  wildman ;  the  hero,  a  disguised  prince, 
slays  both  and  also  a  would-be  assassin;  and  after  such  trials 
the  two  are  happily  joined.  Far  more  somber  in  tone  and 
incident,  yet  short  of  Marlowesque  tragedy,  is  the  crude  and 
uncertain  production  printed  by  Bullen  as  "  The  Distracted 
Emperor,"  which  turns  to  medieval  romance — Charlemagne 
and  his  peers — for  its  theme.^^  Dekker's  "  Old  Fortunatus  " 
is  yet  different.  It  offers  a  tragic  theme  from  romantic  folk- 
lore, intermingled  with  a  profusion  of  comedy  and  masque 
elements,  and  echoes  the  old  morality  idea  of  tragicomedy  in 
crowning  the  calamitous  end  of  its  heroes  with  a  moral 
triumph.  Of  all  such  plays,  however,  perhaps  in  the  "  Weakest 
goeth  to  the  Wall "  romance  most  nearly  approximates  a 
tragicomic  resultant.  Here  a  romantic  plot  is  adapted  to_a 
pseudo-historical  setting,  and  given  the  treatment  of  a  chron- 

21,  25.     For  general  subject  of  the  use  of  the  term  "history"  as  a  word 

of  dramatic  nomenclature,  cp.   Creizenach,  Geschichte,   IV    (pt.   i.),   268  ff. 

^^  Old  Plays,  Vol.  3.  Bullen  entitles  the  play  a  Tragi-Comedy ;  there  is 
no  documentary  support  for  this. 


85 


icle  history.  The  story  centers  on  the  career  of  a  foundling 
son  of  an  exiled  Duke,  who,  after  undergoing  various  romantic 
adventures  in  love  and  war,  is  about  to  be  executed  for  a  sup- 
posed violation  of  the  law  of  the  land,  when  a  timely  discovery 
of  his  true  lineage  brings  all  to  rights,  and  a  combination 
events  renders  the  denouement  happy  for  all.  As  a  rule,  tho, 
these  anomalous  forms  play  little  part  in  the  growth  of  tragi- 
comedy. It  is  in  Shakspere's  early  plays  that  the  blending  of 
tragic  and  comic  in  romance  receives  its  consummating  touch. 
With  them  the  romantic  element  ceases  to  be  the  predominat- 
ing note  in  the  English  drama ;  and,  accordingly,  with  them 
ends  that  development  of  tragicomedy  that  is  identified  with 
the  course  of  romance. 

The  early  Shaksperian  plays  that  deserve  some  mention  in 
a  treatment  of  the  beginnings  of  English  tragicomedy  may 
properly  be  restricted  to  the  "  Two  Gentlemen  of  Verona," 
"  Merchant  of  Venice  "  and  "  Much  Ado,"  altho  the  romantic 
comedies  of  "  As  You  Like  It "  and  "  Twelfth  Night  "  are 
not  without  the  somber  to^uches  that  must  accompany  the 
brightest  of  such  plays.^*'  ''  Indeed,  the  border  line  between 
tragicomedy  and  romantic  comedy  in  Shaksperian  drama  is  at 
best  an  arbitrary  one. '  Both  forms  employ  the  same  materials 
and  turn  on  the  same  situations ;  their  differences  are  in  de- 
gree and  not  in  kind.  When  the  element  of  impending  disas- 
ter, the  invariable  accompaniment  of  stories  of  romantic  love, 
is  turned  to  the  darker  purposes  of  tragedy,  then  romantic 
comedy  may  be  said  to  stiffen  into  the  cast  of  its  stauncher 
sister.^'^ 

Thus  the  sustaining  serious  element  in  the  "  Two  Gentlemen 

'*  In  this  connexion  it  seems  significant  to  note  that  even  in  the  Comedy 
of  Errors  Shakspere  evidently  felt  it  necessary  to  envelop  the  plot  with  a 
serious  interest,  altho  that  play  is  distinctly  without  our  scope. 

^■^  The  distinction  between  romantic  comedy  and  tragicomedy  may  be 
admirably  brought  out  by  a  comparison  of  Shakspere's  Much  Ado  with  a 
later  anonymous  play  on  the  same  plot,  entitled  The  Partial  Law  (c. 
1615-30).  The  latter  is  simply  an  elaboration  of  the  traduced  lady  theme, 
stripped  of  the  comic  sub-plot,  and  heightened  and  intensified  to  fit  the 
mould  of  conventional  tragicomic  drama.  For  this  recently  recovered  play, 
see  Appendix. 


\\^^^• 


86 

of  Verona,"  in  the  events  that  lead  up  to  the  threatened  whole- 
sale catastrophe  in  the  last  scene,  pitches  the  tone  of  the  play 
considerably  above  that  of  pure  romantic  comedy;  while  the 
means  employed  to  relieve  the  final  situation — an  absurd  con- 

■^IK^rsion  of  character  and  a  revelation  of  identity — are  stock 
devices  of  later  tragicomedy.  Similar  statements  may  be  made 
for  the  "  Merchant  of  Venice "  and  "  IMuch  Ado,"  both  of 
which  follow  much  the  same  general  outline.  Both  are  stories 
of  youthful  romance  and  humorous  characters;  both  admit 
a  dark  and  sinister  sub-plot  skillfully  interwoven  with  the  main 
theme;  and  in  both  the  happy  ending  completely  submerges 
the  serious  part  of  the  action.  The  consummate  skill  with 
which  Shakspere  has  combined  the  two  contrary  elements 
is  particularly  noticeable  in  the  "  Alerchant  of  Venice."  Here 
we  have  two  actions,  that  of  the  caskets  and  that  of  the  pound 
of  flesh,  the  gay  and  the  serious,  working  one  into  the  other 
easily  and  naturally,  and  both  reaching  their  culmination  in 
the  fourth  act;  and  then,  after  the  strained  suspense  of  the 
trial  scene,  the  triumph  of  generosity  and  romantic  love  com- 
pletely obliterates  the  memory  of  the  threatened  danger.  In 
"  Much  Ado,"  the  comic  main  plot,  the  story  of  Benedict  and 
Beatrice,  is  sustained  and  braced  by  the  sinister  tale  of  the 
plottings  of  Don  Juan  against  the  fair  name  of  the  lady  Hero. 
Again  the  mirthful  and  the  serious  are  ingeniously  united. 
The  essentially  comic  scene  of  Dogberry  and  his  associates  is 
made  the  direct  means,  thru  the  device  of  overheard  conver- 
sation, of  averting  in  the  end  the  impending  disaster;  and 
later  the  two  plots  are  skillfully  tied  where  the  tragic  accusa- 
tion scene  is  made  the  means  of  uniting  Beatrice  and  Benedict. 
In  both  plays  the  pervading  spirit  of  comedy  is  such  as  to 

/  forecast  the  character  of  the  denouement.  Even  the  momen- 
tary suspense  aroused  by  the  trial  scene  in  the  "  Merchant  of 
Venice  "  is  hardly  sufficient  to  raise  any  doubt  in  the  mind  of 
the  spectator  as  to  how  the  balance  will  incline ;  and,  moreover, 
it  is  doubtful  if  the  Shylock  of  the  Elizabethan  stage  was  the 
.  tragic  figure  of  modern  interpretation.  Certainly  in  "  Much 
Ado  "  the  happy  outcome  is  never  in  question ;  for  immediately 
after  the  villainy  of  Don  Juan  is  perpetrated,  it  is  discovered 


/' 


87 

/ 

V 

by  the  watch,  and  from  that  time  its  ultimate  overthrow  is 
felt  to  be  assured. 

Thus,  while  the  tone  of  pure  comedy  is  too  dominant  in 
these  plays  to  entitle  them  to  the  same  importance  in  the  prep- 
aration for  tragicomedy  as  "  James  IV,"  they  serve  to  show 
the  artistic  height  to  which  the  interweaving  of  tragic  and 
comic  material  had  developed  by  the  close  of  the  century ;  and 
in  this  respect  they  prepare  the  way  for  the  perfected  form  of 
tragicomedy  that  was  to  emerge  later  with  the  revival  of 
romantic  drama  in  the  work  of  Beaumont  and  Fletcher. 

But  to  return  for  a  moment  to  the  non-romantic  drama 
during  the  period  just  reviewed,  we  find  that,  apart  from 
romance,  in  other  forms  of  the  national  drama  as  well,  the 
popular  mixture  of  kinds  is  equally  evident,  altho  contributing 
little  to  the  formation  of  later  tragicomedy.  The  English 
chronicle  plays  especially  perpetuated  the  mingling  of  kinds 
inherited  from  medieval  practise.  In  the  old  play  of  "  King 
Leir,"  we  have  the  same  events  of  Shakspere's  great  tragedy 
deprived  of  their  inevitable  outcome,  and  treated  in  accord 
with  poetic  justice.  Leir  is  restored  to  his  throne,  a  like  pro- 
pitious fate  accorded  Cordelia  and  her  husband,  while  defeat 
and  exile  are  the  rewards  of  the  wicked  daughters. ^^  On  the 
other  hand,  the  juxtaposition  of  tragic  and  comic  is  character- 
istic of  almost  all  historical  plays  of  the  period.  The  biograph- 
ical dramas  of  "  Jack  Straw  "  and  "  Sir  Thomas  More  "  are 
hodge-podges  of  tragedy  and  low  comedy.  The  same  is  true 
of  "  A  Larum  for  London,"  a  chronicle  treatment  of  the  late 
sack  of  Antwerp  by  the  Spaniards ;  and  in  the  realm  of  myth- 
ological history,  Robert  Armin's  "  Valiant  Welshman "  not 
only  jumbles  tragedy  and  farce,  but,  like  Greene's  "  Alphon- 
sus,"  ends  happily  for  its  Marlowesque  protagonist.  Again, 
the  serious  portions  of  "  The  Troublesome  Raigne,"  "  The 
Famous  Victories,"  Peek's  "  Edward  I  "  and  the  "  Tragedy  of 
Woodstock,"  are  all  interlarded  with  comic  relief,  much  of 
which  is  destitute  of  humor  and  full  of  grossness ;  while  some- 

'*  In  this  connexion  may  be  mentioned  the  old  play  of  Timon  (c.  1600), 
which  offers  a  similar  departure  from  the  tragic  treatment  later  accorded 
it  by  Shakspere. 


88 

thing  similar  is  supplied  by  the  Jack  Cade  scenes  in  "  Henry 
VI."  But  in  Shakspere's  trilogy  of  "  Henry  IV  "  and  "  Henry 
V"  the  comic  admixture  reaches  a  height  that  clearly  justi- 
fies its  existence.  In  these  plays  the  immortal  Falstaff  comedy, 
which  is  interspersed  at  intervals  thruout  the  serious  narra- 
tive, becomes  almost  as  conspicuous  as  the  history  itself,  and 
was  probably  intended  to  prove  quite  as  attractive,  if  we 
judge  from  the  titles  of  the  early  quartos.  "  With  the  humor- 
ous conceits  of  Sir  John  Falstaffe "  reads  the  title  page 
of  the  earliest  edition  of  "  Henry  IV,"  and  "  Together  with 
ancient  Pistol "  is  the  sub-heading  of  the  first  "  Henry  V  " 
quarto.  From  this  it  appears  that  comedy  held  much  the  same 
expected  and  recognized  place  in  chronicle  history  as  that  ac- 
corded "mirth  "  in  the  moralities  and  interludes. 

But  of  more  historical  interest  to  the  subject  are  the  two 
plays  of  the  contemporary  non-romantic  drama  known  to  bear 
the  title  of  tragicomedy.  The  first  of  these  is  the  well-known 
Latin  college  play,  the  Oxford  "  Bellum  Grammaticale,"  which 
we  find  praised  by  Sir  John  Harington  in  1591  and  chronicled 
as  acted  before  the  Queen  at  Christ  Church  on  September  24  of 
the  following  year.^'*  It  is  supposedly  the  work  of  the  Oxford 
theologian,  Leonard  Hutten,  about  1590;  but  far  from  being 
an  original  composition,  it  is  only  one  of  many  versions  of 
Andrea  Guarnas's  "  Bellum  Grammaticale,"  a  popular  school 
drama  which  appeared  at  Cremona  in  151 1,  and  in  two  cen- 
turies gave  rise  to  upward  of  a  hundred  editions  and  revisions 
thruout  western  Europe.**^  The  unique  character  of  the  piece 
definitely  sets  it  apart  from  the  other  neo-Latin  tragicomedies ; 
and,  moreover,  the  title  distinction  seems  to  be  the  innovation 
of  the  Oxford  redactor.    The  prolog  speaker  announces : 

"  We  will  give  you  a  Tragico-coiuocdia,  .  .  .  not  one  which  may  draw 
forth  tears,  but  rather  excite  laughter.  For  I  am  permitted  to  be  the 
messenger  of  a  sad  and  mournful  war,  in  which  Pacta  and  Amo,  seditious 

'*  Not  printed  until  1635.      See  below,  p.  145,  n.  31. 

*"  For  a  full  account  of  the  history  of  this  interesting  play,  see  Johannes 
Bolte,  Andrea  Guarnas  Bellum  Grammaticale  und  Seine  Nachahmungen, 
Berlin,   igo8. 


89 

chiefs,    grievously   disturb    the   most   flowering   province    of   Grammar,   not 
without  the  lamentable  overthrow  of  the  bravest  Verbs  and  Nouns."" 

The  ensuing  conflict  is  grievous  indeed  for  the  contending 
forces.  Nouns  are  deprived  of  cases,  numbers,  and  the  like, 
and  Verbs  suffer  similar  losses,  by  all  of  which  the  author 
ingeniously  accounts  for  the  present  irregularities  of  Latin 
Grammar.  It  is  easy  to  see  how  the  allegorical  and  mock 
nature  of  the  conflict  might  have  suggested  the  mixed  title  to 
the  Oxford  redactor,  whose  familiarity  with  the  name  may  be 
traced  to  earlier  humanistic  example.  At  all  events,  tragi- 
comedy appears  to  have  been  a  comfortable  denomination  for 
the  curious  piece  that  later  English  versions  chose  to  retain. *- 
Our  second  tragicomedy  is  likewise  an  academic  play  and 
almost  equally  anomalous — the  odd  production  printed  in  1598 
as  "  The  Tragicomoedi  of  the  vertuous  Octauia.  Done  by  Sam- 
uel Brandon."  As  the  author  was  aclassicistof  the  later  school 
of  Samuel  Daniel,  Fulke  Greville,  Sir  William  Alexander  and 
the  Countess  of  Pembroke — all  of  whom  came  under  the  in- 
fluence of  Garnier,  the  famous  contemporary  tragic  writer  in 
France,  and  attempted  to  revive  Senecan  tragedy  in  England 
as  he  had  done  abroad — it  is  strange  that  he  should  have  at- 
tempted a  professed  tragicomedy,  a  form  in  almost  universal 
ill-repute  among  men  of  his  class.  The  piece  in  the  main  con- 
forms to  the  rules  of  classic  dramatic  art :  the  scene  is  con- 
fined to  Rome,  a  Senecan  chorus  is  introduced,  and  the  in- 
terest centers  about  the  character  of  Antony's  virtuous  wife 
Octavia,  deserted  by  her  husband  for  Cleopatra.  As  the  absent 
Antony  nowhere  appears  on  the  scene,  his  defeat  and  death, 
which  are  reported,  can  hardly  constitute  a  catastrophe  for  the 
play.     The  virtuous  Octavia,  on  the  other  hand,  with  whom 

"  Tragico-comcediam 
Vobis  dabimus,   nobis  si  aures  et  oculos  dare  est  otium, 
Non  quse  lacrimas  exprimat,  sed  risum  moveat. 
Nam  belli  funesti  et  luctuosi  sim  licet  nuntius, 
Quo  florentissimam  Grammaticae  provinciam  misere 
Vexarunt  Poeta  et  Amo,  seditiosi  principes, 
Non  sine  lamentabili  strage  fortissimorum  Verborum  et  Nominum. 

Ibid.,  p.  106. 
^  See  below,  p.   178,  note  50. 


90 

the  main  interest  has  to  do,  survives  her  misfortunes  and  is 
left  alive  at  the  end.  Thus  the  play  has  something  of  the  two- 
fold ending  of  the  morality  type,  which  is  the  only  possible 
excuse  for  its  classification  as  a  tragicomedy.  As  there  is  no 
evidence  that  the  play  was  ever  performed,  its  influence  in 
popularizing  the  goirc  name  on  the  public  stage  is  of  course 
negligible. 

Reference  has  been  made  to  the  popular  custom  of  enliven- 
ing tragic  themes  with  comic  by-play,  a  custom  which  per- 
sisted thruout  the  formative  period  of  English  tragedy  in 
defiance  of  decorum,  and  which  seems  to  have  been  the  "  mun- 
grell  Trag}'-comedie  "  so  bitterly  assailed  by  Sidney.  Even  in 
addition  to  the  comic  scenes  printed  in  the  text  of  such  plays, 
improvised  clownage  and  jigs  between  the  acts  of  tragedies 
formed  a  common  and  expected  part  of  the  performance;'^^ 
but  toward  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century  there  is  evidence 
of  a  growing  appreciation  of  the  unseemliness  of  such  practise. 
The  printer  of  the  1592  edition  of  Marlowe's  "  Tamburlaine  " 
takes  pains  to  say  that  he  has  purposely  omitted  from  the 
text  certain  "  fond  and  friuolous  Jestures,"  which  to  him  seem 
a  "  disgrace  to  so  honorable  and  stately  a  historic "  ;**  while 
the  point  of  view  of  Sidney  and  Whetstone  in  regard  to  the 
bufifoon  in  tragedy  is  repeated  in  the  following  satiric  thrust 
of  Bishop  Hall: 

Now,  lest  such  frightful  shows  of  Fortune's  fall. 
And  bloody  tyrant's  rage,  should  chance  apall 
The  dead-struck  audience,  'midst  the  silent  rout, 
Comes  leaping  in  a  self-misformed  lout. 
And  laughs,  and  grins,  and  frames  his  mimic  face, 
And  justles  straight  into  the  prince's  place ; 
Then  doth  the  theatre  echo  all  aloud, 

*'  Cp.  Hamlet's  advice  to  the  players,  where  he  urges  that  clownes  be 
allowed  to  "  speak  no  more  than  is  set  down  for  them."  The  same  custom 
seems  to  have  prevailed  on  the  popular  French  stage  as  well,  as  the 
following  passage  from  J.  Bodin's  .S"u-  Bookcs  of  a  Commonweale  (1576- 
78)  indicates:  "Now  adayes  they  put  at  the  end  of  euerie  Tragedie  (as 
poyson  into  meat)  a  comedie  or  jigge."  Translation  of  Richard  Knolles 
(1606),  Lib.  I,  cap.   I. 

**  To  the  Gentlemen  Readers:  And  Others  that  take  Pleasure  in  Reading 
Histories,      R,   I.   Printer. 


91 

With  gladsome  noise  of  that  applauding  crowd. 

A  goodly  hotch-potch  !    when  vile  russetings 

Are  match'd  with  monarchs,  and  with  mighty  kings. 

A  goodly  grace  to  sober  tragic  Muse, 

When  each  base  clown  his  clumbsy  fist  doth  bruise, 

And  show  his  teeth  in  double  rotten  row 

For  laughter  at  his  self-resembled  show.*' 

While  instances  of  this  sort  may  be  cited  to  show  the  criti- 
cal feeling  on  the  part  of  some  toward  the  mingling  of  tragic 
and  comic,  nowhere  in  all  the  dramatic  comment  of  the  cen- 
tury, with  the  exception  of  Sidney's  "  Apology,"  is  there  any 
mention  of  the  practise  as  tragicomedy,  or  any  indication  at 
all  of  a  critical  recognition  of  any  such  dramatic  species.  Even 
in  all  the  dramatic  criticism  of  Ben  Jonson  that  finds  its  way 
into  his  early  plays,  there  appears  to  be  no  passage  that  would 
seem  to  indicate  that  he  had  so-called  tragicomedy  in  mind.**^ 
These  facts  of  criticism,  coupled  with  the  practical  absence  of 
the  title  term  from  popular  plays  of  the  last  quarter  of  the 
century,  are  fairly  convincing  of  the  almost  negligible  vogue 
of  tragicomedy  as  a  recognized  dramatic  species  in  sixteenth 

^°  Satires  (1597),  I,  3.  With  this  may  be  mentioned  a  similar  reference 
that  finds  expression  in  the  academic  Cambridge  production,  The  Pilgrimage 
to  Parnassus  (c.  1598-99)  : 

"  Enter  Dromo,  dratving  a  clowne  in  zvith  a  rope. 

"  Clowne.  What  now  ?  thrust  a  man  into  the  commonwealth  whether 
hee  will  or  noe?    what  the  devill  should  I  doe  here? 

"  Dromo.  Why,  what  an  ass  art  thou !  dost  thou  not  knowe  a  playe 
cannot  be  without  a  clowne?  Clownes  have  bene  thrust  into  playes  by 
head  and  shoulders  ever  since  Kempe  could  make  a  scurvey  face ;  and 
therefore  reason  thou  shouldst  be  drawne  in  with  a  cart-rope,"  Act  V, 
1.  671  ff.      (Ed.  W.  D,  Macray,  1886.) 

"  One  passage,  however,  in  the  dramatic  comment  of  Cordatus  and  Mitis, 
which  accompanies  the  action  of  Every  Man  Out  of  His  Humour  (1599), 
may  be  cited  as  illustrating  Jonson's  attitude  toward  the  introduction  of 
tragic  situations  in  a  comedy.  The  passage  in  question  is  called  forth  by 
the  scene  (Act  III,  sc.  2)  where  Sordido  is  barely  saved  from  his  attempt 
at  suicide.  Mitis  objects  to  this  approach  to  tragedy  as  out  of  keeping 
with  the  nature  of  comedy,  but  withdraws  his  objection  when  Cordatus 
cites  a  precedent  from  the  Cistellania  of  Plautus.  Cp.  also  the  close  of 
the  preceding  scene,  which  seems  to  allude  to  the  absurdities  of  current 
romantic  comedy.  For  Jonson's  later  connexion  with  the  name  tragi- 
comedy, see  below,  p.  log. 


92 

century  England.  Moreover,  from  the  scanty  extant  data  deal- 
ing directly  with  tragicomedy,  it  is  equally  evident  that  the 
title  name  connoted  no  very  definite,  and  certainly  no  uniform 
ideas  even  on  the  part  of  the  few  who  used  it.  So  far  as 
these  aspects  of  the  subject  are  concerned,  the  situation  may 
be  more  clearly  grasped  from  a  summarizing  tabulation  of  all 
the  known  instances  of  any  use  of  the  term  tragicomedy  in 
England  before  1600: 

Drama 
I.     Academic  plays : 
(i)   Neo-Latin, 

Coma:dia    Tragica,    "  Christus    Redivivus "    (1543), 

Nicholas  Grimald.*'' 
Drama  Comicotragicum,  "  Sapientia  Solomonis  "  (un- 
dated MS.     Acted  1566?),  Anon,  redaction.*^ 
Tro(//co-co;//(rcf/o^  "  Bellum  Grammatical  "  (c.  1590), 
Leonard  Hutten  (?),  From  prolog  of  AIS.*^ 
(2)  Vernacular, 

tragicall  Comcdie,  "Glass  of  Government"   (1575), 

George  Gascoigne.'"'" 
Tragi-comoedi,  "Virtuous  Octavia"   (1598),  Samuel 
Brandon.^^ 
II.     Popular  plays : 

tragicall  commedie,  "Damon  and  Pythias"  (1571),  Rich- 
ard Edwards.^- 
Tragicall    Comcdie,    "  Appius    and    Virginia"     (1575), 

R(ichard)  B(ower).^^ 
tragicall   Comcdie,   "Alexander   and   Campaspe "    (1591, 

second  quarto),  John  Lyly.^* 
Tr.  Com.  (Tragical  Comedy),  "A  Looking  Glass  for  Lon- 
don   and    England"    (1598    quarto,    ms.    title    page), 
Thomas  Lodge  and  Robert  Greene. ^^ 

"  Above,  p.  2Z-  '"'  Ibid.,  p.  24. 

*"  Ibid.,  p.  88.  '■^Ibid.,  p.  63. 

"^  Ibid.,  p.  89.  ^Ibid.,  p.  61. 

''^Ibid.,  p.  62.  '^Ibid.,  p.  74. 
"^Ibid.,  p.  79- 


93 

Noiv-Dramatic 
I.     Dramatic  reference: 

tragical  Comcdie  of  Calistus,  "A  second  and  third  blast 

of  retrait"  (1580),  Anon.^'' 
Tragy-comedie  and  Tragi-comicall,  "  Apology  for  Poetry 

(1595)  J  Sir  Philip  Sidney." 
tragicke   Comedye   of   Celestina,   "  Stationers'   Register " 
(1598).^^ 
II.     Figurative  use: 

tragicommody,   Preface    (1591)    to   Sidney's   "  Astrophel 

and  Stella,"  Thomas  Nasli.^^ 
tragical   Comedie,    "  Carde   of    Fancie"    (1587),   Robert 

Greene.^*' 
tragicomicall,  "  Soliman  and  Perseda"  (1588),  Thomas 
Kyd(?).«^ 
From  the  above  data,  the  limited  extent  to  which  tragi- 
comedy was  known  and  cultivated  as  such  in  the  period  under 
consideration,  as  well  as  the  little  uniformity  in  the  ideas 
associated  with  the  name,  are  readily  apparent.  During  a 
period  of  over  half  a  century,  covering  the  formative  era  of 
the  English  national  drama,  only  nine  plays  have  survived  as 
tragicomedies  by  direct  contemporary  evidence.  These  may  be 
broadly  grouped  as  academic  or  popular  productions ;  but  be- 
yond some  such  general  division,  classification  is  well  nigh 
impossible,  as  they  range  all  the  way  from  neo-Latin  miracle, 
school  drama  and  classical  imitation  to  popular  romantic  play 
and  belated  morality.  Moreover,  in  three  only — "  Christus 
Redivivus,"  "  Damon  and  Pythias  "  and  the  "  Glass  of  Govern- 
ment " — is  there  any  explanation  offered  by  the  authors  for 
the  adoption  of  the  title  term ;  in  two  others  at  least — "  Alex- 
ander and  Campaspe  "  and  the  "  Looking  Glass  " — the  later 
addition  of  the  genre  name  points  to  the  printer  rather  than  to 
the  author ;  and  of  course  the  redacted  "  Sapientia  Solomonis  " 
and  the  lost  "  Celestina  "  adaptations  or  translations  take  over 
their  classification  from  the  continental  originals.    While  dif- 

^Uhid.,  p.  74.  ^'Ibid.,  p.  71- 

^"■Ibid.,  p.   75.  ^^bid.,  p.  73  n. 

^^  Ibid.,  p.  82.  ^^Ibid.,  p.  82,  note  31. 


94 

fering  widely  in  almost  every  respect,  all  in  common  mingle 
the  motives  of  tragedy  and  comedy,  and  in  this  regard — with 
the  possible  exception  of  "  Bellum  Grammaticale  " — may  be 
broadly  classified  as  preferring  one  of  two  forms :  They  either 
follow  the  tradition  of  the  medieval  stage  with  its  triumphant 
spiritual  denouement  and  its  double  catastrophe  for  the  good 
and  the  evil,  as  illustrated  in  "  Christus  Redivivus "  and  the 
"Glass  of  Government;"  or  they  conform  to  the  conventional 
type  of  popular  romance,  wherein  the  course  of  idealized 
friendship  or  romantic  love  is  conducted  thru  danger  and  dis- 
tress to  safety  and  happiness,  as  shown  in  "  Damon  and 
Pythias  "  and  "  Alexander  and  Campaspe." 

Altho  all  our  extant  tragicomedies  listed  above  may  be  made 
to  fit  roughly  into  one  or  the  other  of  these  moulds,  it  is 
obvious  that  the  early  conception  of  the  form  in  England,  as 
elsewhere,  cannot  be  strictly  confined  even  within  these  limits. 
According  to  Sidney,  the  "  Tragi-comicall "'  arose  from  a  coup- 
ling of  the  "  Tragicall  and  Comicall "''- — apparently  the  only 
requirement  necessary  for  the  product ;  the  manner  of  mixture 
being  an  individual  matter  in  each  case.  At  all  events,  only 
this  broad  basic  conception  of  the  form  will  fit  alike  the  expla- 
nations of  tragicomedy  offered  by  Grimald,  Edwards  and  Gas- 
coigne,  the  "  mungrell  Trag^'-comedie "  described  in  the 
"  Apology,"  and  the  figurative  sense  in  which  the  expression  is 
used  by  Nash,  Greene,  and  the  author  of  "  Soliman  and  Per- 
seda."  Italian  influence  with  its  critical  controversy  over  the 
theory  of  tragicomedy  had  not  yet  made  itself  felt  in  England 
by  the  close  of  the  sixteenth  century;  and,  with  the  exception 
of  the  Spanish  "  Celestina,"  it  is  safe  to  assume  that  con- 
tinental vernacular  precedent  w'as  negligible  in  introducing  the 
new  term  of  dramatic  nomenclature  across  the  channel.  It 
is  rather  to  the  neo-Latin  drama  that  we  must  look  for  the 
chief  source  of  the  first  English  "  tragical  comedies." 

But  the  beginnings  of  tragicomedy  in  England  are  not  con- 
fined within  the  limits  furnished  by  the  collective  evidence  of 
the  existence  and  recognition  of  the  type  by  name.  Conclu- 
sions based  upon  such  data  would  be  totally  inadequate  for  an 

••^  Above,  p.  71,  note  12. 


95 

understanding  of  the  formative  influences  contributing  to  the 
later  finished  product.  The  mingUng  of  tragic  and  comic,  the 
basic  principle  of  tragicomedy,  is  evident  in  almost  every  form 
of  popular  play  thruout  the  period  reviewed — in  morality,  pop- 
ular tragedy,  romantic  drama  and  chronicle  history,  as  well  as 
in  the  comparatively  few  so-called  "  tragical  comedies."  And 
it  has  been  found  that  this  universal  characteristic  of  the 
national  drama  is  explicable  in  two  ways :  first,  the  persis- 
tence of  medieval  dramatic  methods  and  traditions  thruout 
Elizabethan  practise;  and  second,  the  character  of  material 
furnished  playwrights  by  medieval  and  Italian  romance.  To 
the  first  influence  is  due  the  disconnected  jumbling  of  tragic 
and  comic  characteristic  of  the  later  moralities,  popular  trag- 
edies and  chronicle  histories — a  form  of  mingling  universally 
condemned  by  classicists  as  a  flagrant  violation  of  decorum, 
and  of  little  intrinsic  importance  in  the  development  of  tragi- 
comedy, altho  apparently  never  entirely  detached  from  criti- 
cal notions  of  the  form.  Also,  to  this  medieval  influence 
belongs  the  play  of  realistic  theme  and  double  catastrophe, 
rewarding  virtue  and  punishing  vice — the  type  illustrated  by 
the  early  tragicomedies  of  morality  cast,  and  the  precursor  of 
satirical  comedy.  On  the  other  hand,  the  main  preparation 
for  later  tragicomedy  has  been  found  to  identify  itself  thruout 
with  the  second  great  influence  underlying  the  mixing  of  kinds 
— that  contributed  by  romance.  The  essential  attributes  of 
romantic  material — its  tragic  complications,  impending  dangers, 
heroic  exploits,  suspended  action,  averted  tragedy,  happy  end- 
ing— supplied  the  very  qualities  necessary  for  an  artistic  blend- 
ing of  tragedy  and  comedy  of  the  highest  theatrical  effective- 
ness, which  in  time  developed  naturally  into  a  fixed  form  of 
tragicomedy.  In  the  period  reviewed,  this  course  of  develop- 
ment properly  begins  with  the  plays  of  Edwards  and  Whet- 
stone, is  continued  in  the  work  of  Lyly  and  the  non-extant 
romantic  plays  of  the  seventies  and  eighties,  reaches  its  highest 
expression  in  the  ''James  IV"  of  Greene,  and  ends  with  the 
temporary  cessation  of  the  romantic  note  in  the  Shaksperian 
plays  of  the  close  of  the  century. 


CHAPTER  IV 

Some  Transitional  Developments  (1600-1610) 

The  consummate  expression  of  the  drama  of  pure  romance 
in  the  work  of  Shakspere  at  the  close  of  the  century,  marks 
not  only  the  end  of  a  long  period  of  dominance  of  that  type  of 
drama,  but  also  the  beginning  of  an  era  of  conscious  anti- 
romantic  reaction,  extending  roughly  from  Jonson's  innovation 
of  a  comedy  of  humors  in  1598  to  the  advent  of  Beaumont  and 
Fletcher  on  the  stage  nine  or  ten  years  later.  During  this 
interval  we  find  the  drama  undergoing  several  notable  develop- 
ments in  response  to  altered  conditions  in  social  and  national 
life  and  new  standards  of  dramatic  taste.  The  old  imaginative 
idealism  and  patriotic  fervor  that  had  inspired  the  age  of  the 
Armada  had  practically  subsided  by  the  time  of  James  I ;  and 
the  chief  playwrights  of  the  day  were  no  longer  seeking  in- 
spiration in  the  glories  of  England's  past  and  stories  of  ro- 
mantic love,  but  were  finding  dramatic  material  in  low  Londoxi^ 
life  and  domestic  crimes,  or  using  romantic  plots  for  satiridal 
presentation  of  contemporary  manners.  Moreover,  due  chiefly 
to  the  example  and  precept  of  Ben  Jonson,  the  drama  was 
losing  something  of  its  old  extravagance  and  grotesqu^iess 
and  becoming  more  critical  and  regular.  Jonson's  ridicule 
of  the  absurdities  and  formlessness  of  the  contemporary  stage, 
his  revival  of  classical  canons  of  art,  and  his  insistence  on  law 
and  order  in  things  dramatic,  were  not  without  influence  among 
his  contemporaries.  A  growing  consciousness  of  art,  a  more 
critical  attitude  of  mind,  and  often  an  expressed  contempt 
for  the  absurdities  demanded  by  popular  taste,  are  evidenced 
in  the  work  of  the  chief  dramatists  of  the  day.^     The  prov- 

^  For  example,  Webster  sarcastically  observes  in  his  White  Devil  (1606): 
My  tragedy  must  have  some  idle  mirth  in  't. 
Else  it  will  never  pass.  (Act,  III,  end.) 

And  in  his  well-known  address  to  the  reader  prefaced  to  the  play  in  1612, 

96 


97 

inces  of  tragedy  and  comedy  become  more  clearly  defined  and 
more  generally  respected,  and  for  the  first  time  the  distinction 
between  a  narrative  and  a  dramatic  fable  gains  positive  recog- 
nition. 

During  this  transitional  period  when  the  drama  was  thus 
changing  in  tone  and  progressing  in  technic,  the  tragicomic_ 
tradition  of  the  past,  denied  expression  in  romfinrp^  fo^^orne 
extent  found  a  continued  development  in  the  new  prevailing 
types^  Domestic  comedy  frequently  dealt  with  tragic  events, 
problematic  reconciliation  plays  became  popular,  while  the 
satirical  comedy  of  manners  adapted  from  romantic  plots  gave 
equal  opportunity  for  tragedy  and  for  comedy.  Moreover, 
tragicomedy  by  name  was  gaining  headway  as  a  result  of  direct 
foreign  influence.  All  these  several  developments  of  the  first 
seven  or  eight  years  of  the  century  deserve  some  notice  as 
leading  up  to  the  real  outburst  of  EngHsh  tragicomedy  in  the' 
work  of  Beaumont  and  Fletcher. 

Turning  first  to  the  purely  domestic  drama  of  the  time, 
we  encounter  at  least  one  well-defined  group  of  plays  belonging 
to  the  sphere  of  intermediate  drama.  A  neutral  tone  is  the 
universal  characteristic  of  plays  turning  on  the  theme  of  the 
faithful  wife  and  prodigal  husband,  or  some  variation  of  the 
same  popular  motive,  which,  beginning  with  "  Patient  Grissel  " 
(1599)5  runs  thru  quite  a  series  of  later  productions.-  All  are 
reconciliation  dramas,  but  range  in  tone  from  simple  pathos 
untouched  by  tragic  impulse,  as  in  "  Patient  Grissel "  or  the 
"Wise  Woman  of  Hogsdon "  (c.  1604),  to  the  dignity  of 
actual  tragedy  as  in  "  A  Woman  Killed  with  Kindness  "  (1607). 
As  standing  between  these  two  extremes,  may  be  considered 
three  plays,  all  of  uncertain  authorship  and  all  repetitions  of 
the  same  stock  theme :  "  How  a  Man  may  Choose  a  Good 

he  makes  it  plain  that  the  exigencies  of  popular  taste  render  the  execu- 
tion of  a  true  dramatic  poem  impossible,  and  that  he  is  forced  to  sacrifice 
the  principles  of  his  art  on  account  of  the  "  uncapable  multitude."  Other 
evidence  of  the  sort  indicates  that  the  saine  theory  of  dramatic  art  that 
Lope  de  Vega  was  proclaiming  as  necessary  in  Spain  about  this  time 
was  finding  an  echo  in   England. 

^  For  an  account  of  these  plays,  see  ed.  of  The  Faire  maide  of  Bristow 
by  A.   H.   Quinn    (Dissertation,    Pennsylvania,    1902). 


98 

Wife  from  a  Bad"  (1602),  the  "Fair  Maid  of  Bristow  " 
(1605)  and  the  "London  Prodigal"  (1605).  The  motive  in 
each  turns  on  the  story  of  a  prodigal  husband  who  ill-treats 
or  even  attempts  to  murder  his  faithful  wife,  and  after  suf- 
fering for  his  sins,  repents  and  is  forgiven.  The  thing  to  note 
in  all  is  the  adaptation  of  a  familiar  device  from  Italian  ro- 
mance :  the  timely  reappearance  of  the  ^supposedly  murdered/ 
wife,  who  intercedes  for  her  husband  on  trial  for  his  crime, 
saves  his  life  and  brings  about  the  reconciliation.  This,  it  will 
be  remembered,  is  a  tragicomic  device  used  so  effectively  by 
Giraldi.  and  the  main-spring  of  the  action  in  Greene's  "James 
IV."  By  its  adoption  in  these  three  domestic  plays,  actual 
tragedy  is  skillfully  avoided  and  the  reconciliation  made  com- 
plete. In  the  "  Miseries  of  Enforced  Marriage  "  (1607),  how- 
ever, a  play  of  similar  theme  by  George  Wilkins,  the  path  to 
final  repentance  and  forgiveness  is  clouded  by  the  suicide  of 
a  deserted  betrothed;  and  in  Heywood's  "A  Woman  Killed 
with  Kindness,"  a  reversal  of  the  faithful  wife  motive,  the 
denouement  shows  the  wronged  husband  forgiving  his  repent- 
ant wife  on  her  deathbed. 

But  the  stamp  of  actual  tragicomedy  perhaps  finds  its  closest 
approximation  during  these  years  among  so-called  satirical  or 
realistic  comedies,  due  to  the  tragic  admixture  that  necessarily 
finds  its  way  into  such  plays.  Even  in  Ben  Jonson's  work, 
where  the  demarcation  between  tragedy  and  comedy  is  most 
definitely  positive,  there  is  one  play,  "  Volpone "  (1605),  in 
which  the  tone  of  the  action  and  the  catastrophe  are  such 
as  to  arouse  the  query  whether  the  play  is  not  as  much  tragedy 
as  comedy,  and  even  to  call  from  the  author  an  apology  for 
the  juggling  of  decorum  that  the  sequence  of  events  imposed 
upon  him.^     The  fact  that  romantic  plots  were  frequently  com- 

'  "  And  though  my  catastrophe  may,  in  the  strict  rigour  of  comick  law, 
meet  with  censure,  as  turning  back  to  my  promise ;  I  desire  the  learned, 
and  charitable  critick  to  haue  so  much  faith  in  me,  to  thinke  it  was 
done  off  Industrie :  For,  with  what  ease  I  could  have  varied  it,  neerer  his 
scale  (but  that  I  feare  to  boast  my  owne  faculty)  I  could  here  insert. 
But  my  speciall  ayme  being  to  put  the  snaffle  in  their  mouths,  that  crie 
out,  we  neuer  punish  vice  in  our  enterludes,  &c.  I  tooke  the  more 
liberty ;   though   not   without   some   lines   of   example,   drawne   euen   in   the 


99 

bined  with  satiric  purpose  gave  added  opportunity  for  a  result- 
ing tragicomic  effect.  The  best  specimen  of  plays  of  this  type 
is  undoubtedly  Marston's  "Malcontent"  (acted  1601),  which 
has  added  interest  in  being  entered  on  the  Stationers'  Register 
in  1604  as  a  "  Tragicomedia."  The  scene  is  laid  in  Italy,  and 
the  plot  has  to  do  with  the  means  by  which  Altofronto,  the 
deposed  Duke  of  Geneva,  regains  his  dukedom  by  settling  at 
his  own  court  in  the  disguise  of  a  malcontent,  and  unmasking 
to  his  usurper  the  villainous  intrigues  of  Mendoza,  an  upstart 
courtier,  who  is  aiming  at  his  overthrow.  Together  they 
thwart  the  machinations  of  the  villain ;  and  when  the  Malcon- 
tent finally  has  the  situation  well  in  hand,  he  discloses  his 
identity,  forgive^  his  penitent  usurper,  and  even  refuses  to 
stoop  to  take  vengeance  on  the  arch-miscreant  Mendoza,  whose 
evil  designs  have  almost  caused  a  succession  of  bloody  trage- 
dies. The  play  is  a  theme  of  villainous  plotting  thruout, 
which,  together  with  the  interwoven  shameful  intrigues  of  the 
wanton  duchess  Aurelia,  the  stabbing  of  the  young  gallant,  and 
the  cynical  and  ironical  tone  with  which  the  author  has  suffused 
the  whole,  combine  to  give  the  effect  of  a  tragedy  of  blood, 
perverted  by  the  happy  ending  but  not  stripped  of  a  horrible 
realism.  Considered  individually,  the  "  Malcontent  "  is  cer- 
tainly a  tragicomedy  of  remarkable  construction  and  power, 
but  not  of  the  kind  destined  soon  to  absorb  the  attention  of 
Jacobean  playwrights.  Far  less  somber  than  this  play  and  yet 
akin  to  it  in  some  ways  is  Chapman's  "  Gentleman  Usher  " 
(c.  1602),  a  production  which  takes  its  title  from  its  main 
comic  figure,  Bassiolo,  a  "  humorous "  character  of  some 
generic  resemblance  to  the  Malcontent.  This  play  combines 
a  comedy  of  humors  with  a  story  of  romantic  love,  which 
supplies  the  serious  interest.  Again,  an  intriguing  villain  is 
the  root  of  all  the  evil.  He  is  the  unworthy  counsellor  of  the 
Duke  Alphonsus,  who  unfortunately  cherishes  a  passion  for 
Margaret,  the  same   fair  lady  to  whom  his  son,  the   Prince 

ancients  themselues,  the  goings  out  of  whose  comoedies  are  not  alwaies 
ioyfull,  but  oft-times,  the  bawdes,  the  seruants,  the  riuals,  yea,  and  the 
masters  are  mulcted :  and  fitly,  it  being  the  office  of  a  comick-Poet,  to 
imitate  iustice,  and  instruct  to  life,  as  well  as  puritie  of  language,  or 
stirre  up  gentle  affections."     Dedication. 


100 

Vincentio,  is  betrothed.  At  the  chmax  when  the  young  lovers 
are  discovered,  the  Prince  is  mortally  wounded  by  the  villain, 
and  Margaret  straightway  disfigures  her  beauty  by  a  poisonous 
ointment  in  order  to  avoid  a  worse  fate.  But  at  this  point  the 
disastrous  state  of  affairs  shifts  completely,  with  something 
of  the  suddenness  and  surprise  later  employed  so  effectively  in 
tragicomedy  by  Beaumont  and  Fletcher.  By  a  resort  to  the 
supernatural,  a  dens  ex  machina  appears  in  the  shape  of  a 
wonder-working  physician,  who  heals  the  Prince's  wound  and 
restores  the  beauty  of  Margaret.  The  Duke  is  now  recon- 
ciled, and  the  play  ends  happily  in  the  marriage  of  the  lovers. 

Two  other  plays  of  the  same  authors  may  also  be  glanced  at 
here  as  types  of  satirical  comedy  admitting  tragic  devices,  but 
showing  less  of  any  real  tragicomic  character.  In  ^^larston's 
"  Dutch  Courtesan  "  (1605)  a  man  is  bidden  to  kill  his  closest 
friend,  and  he  in  turn  narrowly  escapes  a  similar  fate ;  but  the 
tone  of  the  play,  in  marked  contrast  to  the  "  Malcontent,"  is 
so  completely  that  of  light  comedy  that  the  somber  parts  com- 
pletely lose  their  tragic  force.  Likewise,  Chapman's  "  Widow's 
Tears"  (1605)  is  essentially  a  satirical  comedy  in  romantic 
dress,  but  presents  in  the  under-plot  the  ghastly  situation  of  a 
wife  walling  herself  up  to  die  in  the  tomb  of  her  supposedly 
murdered  husband,  a  device  that  belongs  rather  to  the  ma- 
chinery of  tragic  horrors.  A  play  of  darker  cast  and  more 
serious  complications  is  Shakspere's  "  ^Measure  for  Pleasure  " 
(c.  1604),  a  more  ingenious  handling  of  the  same  repellent 
theme  of  villany  and  lust  earlier  dramatized  by  Giraldi  and 
Whetstone.  Again  we  have  a  disguised  Duke  who  thwarts  the 
evil  designs  of  a  villain,  and  in  the  end  saves  the  innocent  from 
tragic  fate  and  pardons  the  guilty.  The  tone  is  serious  thruout 
and  tragic  situations  are  plenty ;  but  the  plot  is  stripped  of  the 
real  theatrical  effectiveness  of  tragicomedy  by  the  interposed 
soliloquies  of  the  Duke,  which  act  as  a  kind  of  chorus  and 
forecast  for  the  audience  the  happy  solution  of  the  difficul- 
ties. The  same  machinery  is  employed  in  Middleton's 
"  Phcenix "  (1607),  a  social  satire  on  current  corruptions 
located  in  Ferrara.  The  Prince,  wdio  has  ostensibly  set  out 
to  travel,  remains  in  disguise  at  home,  where  he  discovers  much 


101 

villainy  undermining  the  dukedom,  and  iV  even  hired  toTiiurde.* 
his  father.  Thus  he  is  enabled  at  theclirhaxto'urimask  aiicl 
frustrate  the  plots  of  the  evil-doers.  They  are  apprehended, 
and  the  arch-intriguer  merely  banished,  as  in  the  "  Malcon- 
tent "  and  the  "  Gentleman  Usher,"  as  beneath  other  punish- 
ment. Real  suspended  action  is  more  nearly  approximated 
in  a  play  of  the  same  type,  if  less  romantic,  by  Edward  Sharp- 
ham,  called  the  "  Fleire  "  (1605-06).  This  piece  centers  the 
scene  in  London,  and  concerns  the  fortunes  of  a  deposed 
Italian  duke  in  disguise  and  the  love  affairs  of  his  two  daugh- 
ters. The  play  has  all  the  appearance  of  a  comedy  of  man- 
ners until  the  fourth  act ;  but  here  the  action  takes  a  tragic 
turn  which  is  not  relaxed  until  the  very  conclusion,  when  the 
supposed  dead  are  discovered  to  live,  the  condemned  released, 
and  everything  settled  happily. 

Other  examples  of  mingled  drama  during  this  period  might 
be  multiplied  at  some  length;  but  the  above  mention  of  the 
more  obvious  mixtures  of  tragic  and  comic  are  sufficient  to 
show  that  the  pervading  romantic  influence  of  the  past  century 
had  the  effect  of  continuing  the  tragicomic  tradition  in  plays 
of  a  more  pronounced  domestic,  realistic  or  satirical  tone.  In 
almost  every  case  in  the  plays  we  have  been  considering,  the 
tragic  interest  is  directly  traceable  to  romantic  precedent;  and 
frequently  it  involves  only  a  repetition  of  the  same  situations 
and  devices.  Moreover,  it  is  noticeable  that  the  sustaining 
tragic  element  is  handled  with  a  varying  degree  of  dramatic 
skill ;  only  occasionally  is  there  evidence  of  the  author's  appre- 
ciation of  its  value  as  a  device  for  theatrical  effectiveness. 
The  skillful  interweaving  of  tragic  and  comic  to  produce  the 
most  telling  effects  of  suspense,  reverse,  surprise — the  essentials 
of  tragicomedy — still  awaited  a  more  masterful  hand. 

-Reference  has  been  made  to  the  increased  critical  spirit  in 
the  drama  of  this  period  and  the  greater  feeling  for  conceptions 
o'f  dramatic  genres;  yet  in  the  main,  it  appears  that  the  more 
national  playwrights  still  concerned  themselves  little  about  fine 
dramatic  distinctions.  Tragedy  and  comedy,  while  roughly 
differentiated,  could  still  denote  a  multitude  of  varying  types, 
and  were  used  rather  with  the  ending  of  the  plot  in  mind  than 


^tlj^-chjiracter  of  the  action.  Beyond  such  broad  divisions,  it 
■ '  '•  sefcmi  that  Shakspere,  for  example,  found  endeavors  to  define 
and  segregate  dramatic  kinds  ridiculous.  Thus  the  pedantic 
Polonius  commends  the  players  for  their  versatile  knowledge 
of  "  tragedy,  comedy,  history,  pastoral,  pastoral-comical,  his- 
torical-pastoral,   tragical-historical,    tragical-comical-historical- 

Xjpastoral,  etc."*  All  of  Shakspere's  plays  are  grouped  by  the 
editors  of  the  first  folio  in  1623  under  the  three  heads — trage- 
dies, comedies,  histories,  with  the  exception  of  "  Troilus  and 
Cressida,"  which  for  some  reason  is  omitted  from  the  list, 
possibly  because  its  jumble  of  classical  tragedy  and  satirical 
comedy  rendered  classification  impossible.  It  is  evident  that 
tragedy,  comedy  and  history  in  the  main  still  continued  to 
be  the  recognized  dramatic  types;  tho  occasional  critical  com- 
ment from  playwrights  frequently  indicates  a  feeling  of  the 
inadequacy  of  any  one  of  these  terms  for  classifying  the  play 
in  hand.  Of  the  plays  we  have  been  considering  as  approach- 
ing the  form  of  tragicomedy,  the  "  Malcontent "  alone  offers 
any  contemporary  evidence  of  a  connexion  with  the  genre 
name,  being  registered  on  the  books  of  the  Stationers'  company 
in  1604  as  a  "  Tragicomedia."  Yet  in  the  edition  of  the  same 
year,  the  author  speaks  of  the  play  as  a  "  comedy."  And  of 
the  other  plays,  most  were  either  printed  as  comedies  or  so 
described  by  their  authors,  or  left  entirely  without  classifica- 
tion. 

In  other  aspects  of  the  drama,  however,  these  years  are  not 
without  direct  evidence  of  a  growing  knowledge  in  England 
of  tragicomedy  as  a  dramatic  form.  In  Italy  at  this  time  the 
Guarini  controversy  was  still  in  progress ;  in  France  the  tragi- 
comedy of  Hardy  held  the  center  of  the  public  stage;  and  the 

*  This  series  of  ironical  distinctions  is  echoed  a  few  years  later  by 
John  Day  in  the  Isle  of  Gulls  (1606),  Act.  Ill,  sc.  i:  "You  shall  haue 
some  Poet  (Apolloes  Vicar  especially)  write  you  a  comicall  Pastorall 
Tragicall  Musicall  historic  in  prose  will  make  the  auditors  eyes  runne  a 
water  like  so  many  waterspouts,"  Cp.  also  Middleton's  Mayor  of  Queen- 
borough  (pr.  1661),  Act  V,  sc.  i:  "Second  Player.  We  are,  sir;  co- 
medians, tragedians,  tragi-comedians,  comi-tragedians,  pastorists,  humour- 
ists, clownists,  satirists :  we  have  them,  sir,  from  the  hug  to  the  smile, 
from  the  smile  to  the  laugh,  from  the  laugh  to  the  handkerchief." 


103 

prevalence  of  the  form  in  Spain  was  already  beginning  to  call 
forth  critical  opponents  and  defenders.  It  is  natural,  then, 
that  these  continental  influences  should  be  arousing  some  echo 
across  the  channel.  Among  the  unprinted  plays  of  William 
Percy,  the  sonneteer,  is  one  entitled  "  Arabia  Sitiens,  or  a 
Dreame  of  a  Drye  Yeare,  a  tragi-comoedye,"^  dated  by  Fleay, 
1601.  As  a  play  it  is  probably  unimportant;  and  as  it  is  inac- 
cessible in  manuscript,  nothing  can  be  said  of  its  character. 
With  it  may  be  mentioned  another  unprinted  and  inaccessible 
tragicomedy  of  the  same  period,  known  only  by  name,  "  Diana's 
Grove:  or,  the  Faithfull  Genius,"''  an  anonymous  production 
and  supposedly  never  acted.  And  in  a  print  of  1607  we  have  the 
Plautine  term  applied  to  a  curious  prose  collection  of  exempla, 
classical  and  Biblical,  written  by  Lodowick  Lloyd  and  dedicated 
by  him  to  James  I,  called  "  The  Tragicocomedie  of  Serpents."'^ 
But  the  leading  force  in  introducing  the  name  of  tragicomedy 
into  England  at  this  period  is  not  connected  with  these  rela- 
tively unimportant  productions,  but  with  a  new  and  positive 
element  in  the  drama  directly  traceable  to  definite  foreign 
precedent — the  element  of  the  pastoral.  To  the  influence  of  \ 
Tasso  and  more  particularly  Guarini,  is  due  the  inspiration  for 
the  first  definite  expression  of  English  pastoralism,  Daniel's 
"Queen's  Arcadia"  (1605)  and  Fletcher's  "Faithful  Shep- 
herdess "  (1608?),  both  pastoral  tragicomedies  and  both  histor- 
ically very  important  to  our  subject.  ^ 

Some  indication  has  already  been  made  of  the  great  popu- 
larity of  Guarini's  famous  "  Pastor  Fido  "  and  its  immediate 
and   wide  dissemination  thruout  western  Europe.     In   1591, 

^  Percy  MS.  No.  2,  in  the  collection  of  the  Duke  of  Northumberland 
(not  Devonshire,  as  usually  stated).  Listed  in  the  Third  Report  of  the 
Royal  Commission  on  Historical  Manuscripts  (1872),  p.  119.  This  play 
is  probably  to  be  identified  with  a  manuscript  production  in  the  Cam- 
bridge Library,  Mahomet  and  his  heaven^  or  Epimethea,  grauiid  Empresse 
of  the  deserts  of  Arabia,  or  a  dreame  of  a  drye  summer,  or  the  weather- 
■H'oman ;  a   tragarcoma:dye.     Ibid. 

^Before  1603.  MS.  in  private  hands.  See  J.  O.  Halliwell,  Dictionary ; 
Fleay,  II,  337. 

'  See  Hazlitt,  Coll.  and  Notes,  p.  260.  Also  listed  in  catalogs  of  British 
Museum,  Bodleian,  and  Library  of  B.  H.  Bright. 


^^^^•*f^  ;;^'^-<s<4; 


f:'  c  r  -••„ 


-'S^ 


104 

almost  on  the  heels  of  the  first  edition  in  Italy,  appeared  a 
print  of  the  original  in  England.  A  translation  followed  in 
1602,  supposed  to  be  the  work  of  John  Dymock,  and  which 
contained  a  commendatory  sonnet  by  Samuel  Daniel.  About 
the  same  time  there  was  acted  at  Cambridge  a  Latm  version 
of  the  original,  which,  from  the  manuscript  that  survives,^ 
proves  to  be  a  faithful  rendering  with  some  omissions,  and 
in  place  of  Guarini's  prolog  is  inserted  an  original  dialog  of 
some  critical  interest  between  the  characters  Prologus  and 
Argumentum.^  It  has  been  suggested  that  this  academic  pro- 
duction may  have  given  Fletcher,  who  is  supposed  to  have 
been  attending  Cambridge  at  this  time,  his  initial  impulse  to 
rival  the  popular  Italian  tragicomedy.  No  doubt  the  play  was 
widely  known,  especially  in  scholarly  circles,  by  the  time  it  had 
aroused  direct  imitation.  At  any  rate,  its  popularity  was 
sufficient  to  bring  forth  the  sarcastic  comment  of  Ben  Jonson, 
writing  in  "Volpone"  in   1605: 

Here's  Pastor  Fido — 

All    our    English    writers, 
I  meane  such,  as  are  happy  in  th'  Italian, 
Will  deigne  to  steale  out  of  this  author,  mainely ; 
Almost  as  much,   as  from  Montagnie : 
He  has  so  moderne,  and  facile  a  veine, 
Fitting   the   time,    and   catching   the   court-eare." 

This  thrust  at  plagiarism  was  probably  aimed  directly  at 
Samuel  Daniel,  Jonson's  rival  as  court  poet,  whose  "  Oveenes 
Arcadia,  A  Pastorall  Trage-Comedie,"  was  acted  before  the 
Queen  at  Christ  Church,  Oxford,  in  August,  1605.  Some 
years  earlier  Daniel  had  been  in  Italy  where  he  had  met 
Guarini  personally,  as  he  tells  us  in  the  commendatory  sonnet 

*  7/  pastor  fido,  di  signer  Guarini  .  .  .  rccitata  in  Collegio  Rcgali  Canta- 
brigice.     See  Shakspere  Jahrbnch,  XXXIV,  318-19. 

*  An  interesting  echo  of  the  discussion  over  the  legitimacy  of  Guarini's 
innovation  then  raging  in  Italy  is  contained  in  one  of  the  speeches  of 
Argumentum:  "This  pastoral  tragicomedy  is  certainly  going  to  be  acted: 
but  whence  comes  this  new  and  outlandish  kind  ?  And  tragedy  among 
shepherds?  The  thing  itself  is  totally  unsuited  to  the  characters."  But 
Prologus  replies  that  altho  it  is  new  and  strange,  everything  old  has  at 
one  time  been  new.     Ibid. 

"Act  III,  sc.  4. 


105 

prefixed  to  the  1602  English  translation  of  the  "  Pastor  Fido  " ; 
and  the  "  Queen's  Arcadia  "  is  an  obvious  attempt  to  imitate 
Guarini's  dramatic  innovation  on  the  English  academic  stage, 
further  inspired  perhaps  by  the  fact  that  the  rival  university 
had  already  several  times  presented  the  original  in  Latin. ^^ 
But,  Daniel,  while  borrowing  his  general  motivation  from  the 
"  Pastor  Fido,"  together  with  some  items  from  Tasso,  has  in- 
troduced a  device  of  his  own  that  completely  destroys  the  force 
of  his  play  as  a  tragicomedy  of  the  Guarini  type-  The  compli- 
cations of  the  conventional  love-chain  are  rendered  serious  by 
the  evil  plottings  of  a  number  of  invading  scoundrels,  in  whom 
the  author  has  embodied  the  corruptions  and  follies  of  con- 
temporary England,  but  all  their  designs  are  overheard  by  two 
concealed  shepherds,  who  act  as  a  kind  of  interpreting  chorus, 
and  who — we  are  to  understand — will  thwart  the  mischief  at 
the  proper  time.  This  they  do :  the  wicked  are  banished  and 
the  state  purified.  Such  an  arrangement  completely  nullifies 
the  element  of  suspended  action  as  well  as  the  surprise  brought 
about  by  the  happy  denouement ;  while  the  "  danger  of  death," 
insisted  upon  by  Guarini,  is  completely  minimized  by  having 
the  one  tragic  situation — where  the  desperate  swain  Amyntas 
attempts  his  own  life  by  poison — narrated  and  not  presented 
in  the  action. 

Daniel's  second  attempt  at  the  same  kind  of  drama, 
"  Hymen's  Triumph,"  may  be  properly  dealt  with  here,  altho 
an  interval  of  almost  a  decade  separates  it  from  the  "  Queen's 
Arcadia."  From  the  title  we  learn  that  this  "  Pastorall  Tragi- 
comaedie  "  was  presented  at  a  court  entertainment  given  by  the 
Queen  on  the  occasion  of  Lord  Roxborough's  nuptials,  Febru- 
ary, 1614.  While  an  occasional  piece,  it  shows  considerable 
improvement  over  its  predecessor.  Here  we  have  a  pure 
Arcadian  pastoral,  devoid  of  satire,  simpler  in  plot,  and  con- 
structed with  far  more  feeling  for  dramatic  interest.  The 
story  is  the  usual  tangled  web  of  difficulties  besetting  the  for- 

"  An  anonymous  writer  of  the  time  in  chronicling  the  performance  of  the 
Queen's  Arcadia  says,  "  It  was  penned  by  Mr.  Daniel,  and  drawn  out  of 
Fidus  Pastor,  which  was  sometimes  acted  by  King's  College  men  in  Cam- 
bridge." Harl.  nis.  7044.  Cp.  Greg,  Pastoral  Poetry  and  Pastoral  Drama, 
p.  252  n. 


106 

tunes  of  two  Arcadian  lovers,  Thirsis  and  Silvia,  before  they 
are  united  in  happiness.  Silvia,  who  has  been  separated  from 
her  lover  and  carried  off  by  pirates,  returns  to  Arcadia  in  dis- 
guise as  a  shepherd  boy,  and  there  ensue  various  love  entangle- 
ments by  reason  of  her  disguise.  The  climax  comes  wdien  her 
identity  is  discovered  by  her  lover  just  after  she  has  been 
stabbed  by  a  jealous  shepherd  swain.  Thirsis,  believing  her 
dead,  falls  into  a  swoon ;  and  the  last  act  is  a  mere  narrative 
of  how  the  lovers  were  restored  by  the  magic  "  oyntments, 
oyles  and  herbes  "  of  Arcadia,  and  happily  united.  Thus  the 
plot,  while  slight  and  conventional,  is  on  the  whole  original 
and  arises  to  a  real  tragic  climax,  capable  of  arousing  the  pity 
and  terror  of  the  Guarini  formula  before  the  happy  change. 

Both  the  above  plays  were  court  productions,  written  by  a 
man  who  had  more  skill  as  a  poet  than  a  playwright.  Ap- 
parently Daniel  had  little  interest  in  the  Guarini  theory  of 
tragicomedy,  at  least  so  far  as  the  handling  of  the  two  motives 
was  concerned.^-  While  he  more  nearly  approximates  a  tragi- 
comic result  in  his  later  play,  his  treatment  of  the  sustaining 
serious  interest  is  inadequate,  and  in  the  "  Queen's  Arcadia  " 
he  fails  utterly,  as  suspense  is  done  away  with  by  the  device 
of  the  two  concealed  shepherds,  and  the  sole  tragic  situation 
kept  behind  the  scenes.  But  the  historical  importance  of  his 
work  is  considerable.  The  ''  Queen's  Arcadia "  is  the  first 
definite  connecting  link  between  Italian  and  English  tragi- 
comedy; and  the  author's  initiative  in  introducing  the  new 
Italian  form  is  to  be  reckoned  with  as  one  of  the  influences  in 
commending  the  practise  of  tragicomedy  to  others,  and 
especially  in  preparing  the  way  for  Fletcher's  "  Faithful 
Shepherdess-" 

Whereas  pastoral  tragicomedy  first  entered  England  in 
academic  dress  in  Daniel's  "  Queen's  Arcadia  " ;  in  the  "  Faith- 
ful Shepherdess,"  Fletcher  essayed  the  far  more  difficult  task 

"  Yet  that  tragicomedy  was  more  than  a  title  name  to  him  is  evident 
from  a  passage  in  Hymen's  Triumph  (IV,  3),  where  Thyrsis  asks  his 
companion  to  entertain  him  with  a  story : 

No    merry    tale    my    boy,    nor    yet    too    sad, 
But  mixed,  like  the  tragicke  Comedies. 


107 


/ 


of  adapting  the  same  dramatic  form  to  the  requirements  of  the 
popular  stage,  accustomed  to  rapid  action,  quick  change,  ^y 
violent  contrast,  and  other  qualities  totally  foreign  to  the 
Arcadian  type.  The  play  was  acted  probably  in  1608,^^  and 
that  it  signally  failed  for  lack  of  the  popular  note  is  evident 
from  the  preface  and  prefixed  verses  of  the  undated  quarto 
that  followed  a  year  or  so  later.^*  In  the  address  "  To  the 
Reader "  prefaced  to  this  edition,  Fletcher,  piqued  by  the 
failure  of  the  piece,  enters  a  critical  justification  of  the  dra- 
matic type  to  which  his  play  belongs ;  a  document  of  prime 
historical  importance  here,  for  in  it  the  author  takes  occasion 
to  correct  the  popular  misapprehension  of  a  pastoral  tragi- 
comedy as  "  a  play  of  country  hired  shepherds  in  gray  cloaks, 
with  curtailed  dogs  in  strings,  sometimes  laughing  together  and 
sometimes  killing  one  another,"  and  to  offer  a  correct  and 
critical  definition  of  the  form : 

"  A  tragi-comedy  is  not  so  called  in  respect  of  mirth  and  killing,  but  in  ^\ 
respect  it  wants  deaths,  which  is  enough  to  make  it  no  tragedy,  yet 
brings  some  near  it,  which  is  enough  to  make  it  no  comedy,  which 
must  be  a  representation  of  familiar  people,  with  such  kind  of  trouble  as 
no  life  be  questioned ;  so  that  a  god  is  as  lawful  in  this  as  in  a  tragedy, 
and  mean  people  as  in  a  comedy."  ^ 

It  is  obvious  at  once  that  this  definition,  the  first  of  the  sort 
to  appear  in  England,  is  neither  in  any  way  based  on  the  pre- 
cedent of  the  English  stage,  nor  original  with  the  author,  but 
taken  over  bodily  from  the  Guarini  conception  of  the  species 
— a  play  not  part  tragedy  and  part  comedy,  but  a  tempered 
mean  between  the  two,  introducing  the  danger  of  death  but 
never  death  itself,  and  admitting  characters  of  mingled  sta- 
tion.^^  Evidently  to  the  English  popular  mind  tragicomedy 
still  connoted  only  the  mixture  of  "  mirth  and  killing "  of 
long-standing  stage  tradition,  and  to  the  lack  of  which  in  the 

^' In  Jonson's  Conversations  with  Drummond,  1618,  occurs  the  passage: 
"  Flesher  and  Beaumont,  ten  yeers  since,  hath  written  the  Faithful!  Ship- 
heardesse,  a  Tragicomedie,  well  done."  It  is  now  generally  conceded  that 
Beaumont  had  no  part  in  the  play. 

"  Published    before    May,    161 0,    as    one    of    the    persons    to    whom    the  \j 
play  is  dedicated  died  at  that  time. 

^°  Above,  p.  41. 


108 

"Faithful  Shepherdess"  Fletcher  assigns  its  failure  to  please. 
The  important  thing  to  bear  in  mind  is  not  only  Fletcher's 
contact  with  the  Italian  theory  of  tragicomedy,  but  his  adop- 
tion of  it  in  perhaps  his  first  play. 

The  "  Faithful  Shepherdess  "  itself,  while  evidently  inspired 
by  the  ''  Pastor  Fido,"  as  shown  by  the  name  and  the  author's 
concern  for  critical  theory,  is  neither  in  plot,  situations  nor 
characters  an  imitation  of  foreign  models.  It  follows  of 
course  the  general  pastoral  tradition  of  its  forebears ;  but  the 
whole  has  been  recast  anew  and  made  in  accordance  with  the 
author's  knowledge  of  English  stagecraft,  so  that  the  result  is 
almost  an  innovation,  and,  in  spite  of  the  initial  stage  failure, 
an  improvement  in  every  way  over  Daniel's  mere  reproduc- 
tion of  Italian  methods.  The  story  requires  no  long  introduc- 
tion, narration  gives  way  to  action,  the  movement  is  rapid, 
suspense  constant,  and  the  serious  situations  multiplied.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  plot  is  deficient:  its  complications,  while 
almost  as  intricate  and  involved  as  those  of  the  "  Pastor  Fido," 
do  not  come  to  the  climax  and  dissolve  in  the  grand  denoue- 
ment that  characterize  the  Guarini  play.  All  the  incidents  that 
involve  the  various  pairs  of  lovers  are  the  happenings  of  a 
single  night,  and  at  the  end,  while  misunderstandings  are 
righted,  wounds  cured,  and  the  culprits  banished,  the  situation 
in  general  is  practically  what  it  was  in  the  beginning  Thruout 
there  has  been  neither  mirth  nor  killing.  No  deaths  occur; 
and,  on  the  other  hand,  the  author  has  tabooed  jocular  comedy. 
But  while  the  play  "  wants  deaths,"  it  "  brings  some  near  it " 
by  means  of  the  usual  pastoral  tragic  devices.  Twice  does  the 
despairing  lover  attempt  to  slay  himself,  twice  is  the  gentle 
maiden  stabbed,  and  once  a  meddling  gallant ;  but  the  hand  of 
suicide  is  stayed  in  time,  and  all  wounds  are  healed  in  the 
marvelous  Arcadian  fashion. 

Tho  Fletcher  had  failed  to  popularize  the  pastoral,  his  effort 
gained  the  prompt  appreciation  of  readers  and  even  a  tardy 
recognition  from  the  play-going  public.  One  of  the  five  quar- 
tos before  the  folio  of  1679  records  that  in  1633  it  was  acted 
"  divers  times  "  and  "  with  great  applause,"  and  years  later  in 
1663  Pepys  writes  that  it  was  "  much  thronged  after  and  often 


109 

shown."  That  the  play  added  much  to  the  critical  theory  of 
tragicomedy  in  England  and  gave  increased  impetus  to  popular- 
izing the  name,  is  certain.  Even  Ben  Jonson  in  his  contempo- 
rary "Epicoene"  (acted  1609)  deigns  to  use  the  new  term  in 
describing  the  prank  played  by  Truewit  on  the  two  gulls,  Sir 
Amorous  La  Foole  and  Sir  John  Daw,  by  which  each  is 
frightened  into  behaving  that  the  other  is  seeking  his  life,  and 
each  submits  to  all  sorts  of  indignities  to  appease  his  supposed 
enemy.^*^  And  in  a  colonial  pamphlet  of  1610,  the  author  com- 
pares to  a  "  tragicall-comsedie  "  the  fortunes  of  a  sea- faring 
party  wrecked  by  a  tempest  on  an  island  of  the  Bermudas,  but 
happily  delivered  from  threatened  destruction.^"  Two  years 
later,  in  1612,  an  entry  in  the  Stationers'  Register  mentions 
"  a  Tragecomedye  called,  The  Noble  man  written  by  Cyrill 
Tourneur,"  one  of  the  plays  destroyed  by  Warburton's  servant, 
and  now  not  known  to  exist.^^ 

The  leading  influence  in  fostering  the  genre  name  in  Eng-\ 
land  at  this  time  was  no  doubt  Fletcher's  play,  reinforced  by 
Daniel's  pastoral  tragicomedies.     Of  more  significance,  how- 

" "  Tnieivit.  Agreed.  Perhaps  'twill  bee  the  better  estate.  Doe  you 
obserue  this  gallerie?  or  rather  lobby,  indeed?  Here  are  a  couple  of 
studies,  at  each  end  one :  here  will  I  act  such  a  tragi-comcedy  betweene 
the  Guelphes,  and  the  Ghibellines,  Daw  and  La-Foole — which  of  'hem 
comes  out  first,  will  I  seize  on :  (you  two  shall  be  the  chorus  behind  the 
arras,  and  whip  out  betweene  the  acts  and  speake.)"  Act  IV,  sc.  5.  By  a 
strange  coincidence  perhaps,  Rabelais,  in  his  Pantagruel  (1533),  IV,  12, 
describes  as  a  tragicque  comedie  a  strikingly  similar  situation.  See  above, 
p.  52,  n.  63.  It  may  be  noted  here  that  on  the  frontispiece  of  the  1616  folio 
of  Ben  Jonson's  plays  appears  a  figure  of  "  Tragicomoedia  " — by  the  side 
of  "  Tragoedia "  and  "  Comoedia " — arrayed  with  crown  and  scepter,  a 
buskin  on  one  foot  and  a  sock  on  the  other.  That  pastoral  tragicomedy 
is  meant  by  this  unique  design  is  evident  enough,  as  Creizenach  points  out, 
because  on  both  sides  of  the  figure  appear  a  shepherd  and  a  satyr.  See 
Creizenach,  Geschichte,  IV  (pt.  1.),  269-70. 

" "  What  is  there  in  all  this  tragicall-comaedie,  that  should  discourage 
us  with  impossibilitie  of  the  enterprise?  when  of  all  the  fieete,  one  onely 
ship  by  a  secret  leake  was  indangered,  and  yet  in  the  gulfe  of  despaire 
was  so  graciously  preserved."  A  true  Declaration  of  the  estate  of  the 
Colonic  in  Virginia,  1610.  See  Furness's  New  Variorum  Shakespeare, 
Tempest  (1892),  p.  311. 

^*  Acted  by   the  King's  Players  at   Court  Revels,   1612. 


J 


110 

ever,  is  the  fact  that  this  play,  a  tragicomedy  constructed  ac- 
cording to  critical  theory,  marks  the  initial  stage  of  the  dra- 
matic careers  of  Fletcher  and  his  first  collaborator  Beaumont, 
and  discloses  the  source  of  the  inspiration  underlying  the 
definitely  formulated  type  of  tragicomedy  that  is  their  peculiar 
contribution  to  the  English  drama.  These  two  authors,  during 
the  short  period  of  their  collaboration,  seem  to  have  been  the 
most  popular  playwrights  of  the  time,  while  the  potency  of 
their  influence  on  their  contemporaries  and  followers  is  at- 
tested by  the  ruling  character  of  the  drama  up  to  1642.  With 
them  we  enter  the  heyday  of  English  tragicomedy,  extending 
approximately  from  1610  to  the  closing  of  the  theaters,  a 
period  characterized  by  the  cultivation  of  tragicomedy  by 
practically  all  playwrights  of  the  day,  and  its  ascendency  in 
'Npopularity  over  every  dramatic  form. 


CHAPTER  V 

The  Heyday  of  English  Tragicomedy  (i6io  to  1642) 

Of  Fletcher's  actual  collaboration  with  Beaumont,  which 
extended  to  the  latter's  retirement  in  1612,  and  which  resulted 
in  the  group  of  dramas  whose  great  success  signalized  the 
return  to  romantic  and  heroic  themes,  two  plays,  "  Philaster  "  ^\ 
and  "  A  King  and  No  King,"  stand  forth  as  the  forerunners  of 
the  new  type  of  English  tragicomedy.  The  characteristics  of 
"  heroic  romance,"  as  the  plays  of  this  collaboration  have  been 
called,  are  too  well  known  to  be  dwelt  on  here.^  The  scene  ^- 
is  always  located  far  enough  away  in  foreign  realms  to  allcra; 
theJmamnaiiorLto  wander  at  wjll,  unhampered  by  the  restric- 
tions of  reality;  and  melodramatic  actions,  warring  passions 
and  marvelous  events  are  right  in  keeping  with  the  romantic 
atmosphere  and  heroic  protagonists  to  which  we  are  intro- 
duced. Characterization,_  probability,  actuality,  ethical  value 
— all  are  sacrificed  to  theatrical  effect  or  anything  sensational 
or  startjjng  tliat  an_  ingeniously  constructed  plot  may  be  made 
to  offer.  Instead  of  an  action  plodding  to  an  inevitable  con- 
clusion or  interspersed  with  impeding  explanations  pointing 
to  the  outcome,  inevitableness  is  thrown  to  the  winds,  and  a 
constant  use  of  surprise,  jxverse^nd  surprise  again,  hold  the 
fates_qf  the  heroes  and  heroines  in  the  bajance_imtil.  tli£_y£ry 
end,  when  the  final  turn  of  fortune  grants  them  heroic  death 
oTsnajches^ tliem  from^jtnpending  disaster.  ^ 

It  is  chiefly  by  the  character  of  the  denouement  that  "  Phil- 
aster"  and  "A  King  and  No  King"  are  to  be  distinguished 
from  the  tragic  romances  with  which  they  are  so  closely  identi- 
fied in  all  else.  Both  follow  the  essentials  of  the  Beaumont- 
Fletcher  innovation :  distant  setting,  royal  persons,  complicated 
plot,  balance  and  contrast  in  character  and  emotion ;  and  both 

'  A.  H.  Thorndike,  The  Influence  of  Beaumont  and  Fletcher  on  Shake- 
speare  (igoi),  on  which  the  first  pages  of  this  chapter  are  entirely  based, 

111 


112 

end  happily.  Yet  the  two  plays  are  anything  but  repetitions. 
In  "  Philaster  "  an  idyllic,  and  in  "  A  King  and  No  King  "  a 
martial  tone  prevails-  Philaster  is  a  lily-livered  hero  enthralled 
in  sentimental  love;  Arbaces  a  violent  monarch  overwhelmed 
by  a  sudden  and  unnatural  passion.  In  the  earlier  play  we 
have  a  striking  example  of  tragicomedy  in  process  of  transi- 
''  tion  from  pure  pastoral  to  romance.  We  note  at  once  the 
pervading  pastoral  influence  in  the  forest  scenes  and  Arcadian 
devices ;  while  the  shepherds  and  ideal  commonwealth  de- 
manded by  the  Guarini  formula  as  necessary  for  the  inter- 
mediate nature  of  tragicomedy  are  supplanted  by  the  equally 
Utopian  characters  and  surroundings  of  a  romantic  no  man's 
land.  The  play  doubtless  followed  close  in  the  wake  of  the 
"  Faithful  Shepherdess."  The  course  of  sentimental  love  is 
crossed  by  evil  slander;  and  the  distracted  hero,  convinced 
that  his  lady  and  faithful  page  have  played  him  false,  comes 
upon  them  in  turn  in  the  forest  and  stabs  them  both,  quite  in 
the  manner  of  the  jealous  shepherd  swain  of  pastoral  tragi- 
comedy. The  fifth  act  shows  all  healed  of  their  wounds,  mis- 
understandings righted,  and  the  lovers  reconciled ;  but  the 
tragic  complications  have  only  begun.  The  king  in  a  fit  of 
royal  anger  that  his  daughter  should  defy  his  authority  and 
claim  the  lowly  Philaster  as  her  husband  when  he  had  intended 
her  for  a  prince,  sentences  both  lovers  to  death.  Here  an 
insurrection  of  citizens  compels  the  monarch  to  recall  his 
sentence,  and  after  the  erratic  hero  has  offered  twice  to  kill 
himself,  the  final  surprising  discovery  that  the  page  Bellario  is 
a  love-lorn  damsel  in  disguise  discloses  the  miscreants  and 
restores  the  hero  to  his  rightful  place  as  heir  to  the  crown  of 
Sicily.  In  "  A  King  and  No  King  "  the  action  is  less  fluctuating 
but  no  less  threatening,  and  the  happy  ending  equally  well 
concealed  to  the  last.  Arbaces  seems  irresistibly  impelled 
along  to  crime  by  the  force  of  an  ungovernable  passion  for 
his  supposed  sister.  He  struggles  against  it  in  vain,  and  finally 
succumbs.  But  in  the  last  act  at  the  very  culmination  of  his 
resolve  to  commit  murder,  incest,  and  follow  all  with  suicide, 
the  tragic  suspense  is  broken  by  a  complete  surprise :  a  timely 
explanation  reveals  that  Panthea  is  not  his  sister,  and  the  suc- 
cession of  tragedies  is  stayed. 


113 

The  popularity  of  these  two  tragicomedies  was  not  only 
immediate  but  remarkably  long  continued,  as  innumerable  edi- 
tions and  stage  revivals  even  as  late  as  the  nineteenth  century 
abundantly  attest;  while  the  imitation  they  aroused  from 
others  and  the  continuation  of  the  same  type  by  Fletcher  alone 
and  with  later  collaborators  is  additional  evidence  of  their 
favorable  reception  by  the  courtly  audience  for  which  they 
were  written,  an  audience  always  responsive  to  appeals  to  the 
imagination  and  sympathies  and  lately  sated  with  dark  tragedy 
and  domestic  drama.  The  initial  success  of  "  Philaster  "  even 
seems  to  have  impelled  Shakspere  to  undertake  the  same  sort 
of  drama  at  the  close  of  his  career,  if  indeed  "  Cymbeline  " 
followed  the  Beaumont-Fletcher  innovation  as  the  probabili'- 
ties  all  indicate.-  With  all  the  striking  parallels  in  character, 
plot  and  treatment  between  the  two  plays,  the  Shaksperian 
drama,  by  reason  of  its  subservience  to  the  trammels  of  th^ 
past,  is  less  a  tragicomedy  of  the  new  type.  The  older  epi^ 
method  of  construction  is  followed,  apparitions  appear  amor 
the  dramatis  persona:,  war  comes  to  the  foreground  and  a  bai 
tie  is  represented  on  the  stage,  and  the  final  defeat  of  villain| 
and  triumph  of  romantic  love  has  left  death  behind  it.  Th^ 
"  Winter's  Tale "  is  likewise  sufificiently  distinguished  b)^ 
effective  situations,  tragicomic  denouement  and  the  essentialsl^ 
of  the  new  romance  type  to  justify  the  opinion  that  it  wasi 
inspired  by  the  current  trend  of  popular  drama  rather  than  ^ 
by  a  new  view  of  life  on  the  part  of  the  author.  Structurally,  ) 
however,  it  is  related  to  the  old  school  of  rambling  romance 
even  more  than  "  Cymbeline  "  is.  The  play  is  really  in  two 
parts :  the  first  tragic,  involving  the  deaths  of  Antigonus  and 
the  young  prince  as  in  the  old  romance  of  Greene ;  but  the 
second  part  is  untouched  with  death,  as  Shakspere,  unlike  his 
predecessor,  apparently  did  not  feel  the  necessity  of  crowning 
the  union  of  the  young  lovers  with  any  "  Tragicall  strata- 
geme,"^  and  accordingly  shows  the  unjust  king  repentant  at 
the  end,  and  his  repentance  rewarded  with  the  restoration  of 

•  See  A.   H.  Thorndike,  Influence  of  Beaumont   and  Fletcher  on  Shake- 
speare, p.   152  ff. 

^  Above,  p.  82,  note  26. 

9 


114 


his  queen  whom  he  has  thought  dead.  Shakspere's  third  and 
last  romance,  on  the  other  hand,  the  "  Tempest,"  departs  com- 
pletely from  the  loose  structure  of  its  predecessors,  admits  no 
actual  tragedy,  and  is  even  further  removed  from  the  world  of 
fact  and  reality.  Again  there  is  a  story  of  sentimental  love, 
framed  in  a  background  of  intrigue  and  murderous  design ; 
but  the  action  never  reaches  a  really  threatening  crisis,  tho  the 
tone  of  the  play  is  distinctly  exalted  above  the  pitch  of  romantic 
comedy. 

Whether  Shakspere  was  led  to  adopt  the  tragicomic  method 
in  his  last  plays  by  the  example  of  Beaumont  and  Fletcher, 
who  probably  at  this  time  surpassed  him  in  popular  favor, 
or  by  his  own  initiative,  is  a  question  of  no  especial  importance 
here.  The  fact  remains  that  "  Cymbeline,"  "  Winter's  Tale  " 
y  1  and  the  "  Tempest,"  whatever  the  inspiration,  are  closely  iden- 
^  /  tified  with  the  new  drama  of  tragicomic  romance,  which  at 
least  testifies  to  the  success  that  the  new  form  was  winning 
by  the  time  Shakspere  and  Beaumont  were  quitting  the  stage 
about  1 612. 

*  The  historical  position  of  "  Philaster  "  and  "  A  King  and  No 
King  "  as  the  first  two  tragicomedies  of  the  young  collabora- 
tors, and  the  only  ones  in  which  Beaumont  had  a  hand,  some- 
what separates  them  from  the  whole  series  of  similar  plays 
that  came  from  the  pen  of  Fletcher  either  writing  alone  or  in 
collaboration  with  others  during  the  next  dozen  years  in 
which  he  continued  to  produce  for  the  theater.  But  it  is  in 
this  laterbody  of  plays  that  the  form  thus  inaugurated  receives 
the^ elaborate  and  varred  devclojjmcnt  that  renders  the  Fletch; 
erian  CMitribution  to  tragicomedy  tlie,  mosL  considerabl£_and_ 
influentiaLof  the  period. 

In  approacliing  these  plays  the  question  immediately  arises. 
Which  are  the  tragicomedies?  Most  of  the  so-called  Beau- 
mont and  Fletcher  plays  were  not  printed  until  years  after  they 
were  written,  and  not  until  the  folio  of  1679  were  any  recog- 
nized as  tragi-comedies,  so  that  contemporary  evidence  of  their 
classification  is  unavailable.  On  the  other  hand,  to  establish 
definite  criteria  of  our  own  that  will  at  once  be  comprehensive 
and  satisfactory  for  the  separation  of  the  form  from  tragedy 


115 

and  comedy  is  certainly  impossible;  and,  as  Fletcher  after  the 
preface  to  the  "  Faithful  Shepherdess "  evidently  ceased  to 
trouble  himself  with  expounding  critical  distinctions  in  dra- 
matic genres,  further  authoritative  testimony  of  that  sort  is 
lacking.  True,  the  general  principles  he  there  laid  down  differ- 
entiating tragicomedy  from  other  forms  might  be  employed 
with  some  satisfaction  in  classifying  his  unaided  plays;*  but 
the  definition  is  clearly  inadequate  when  applied  to  the  col- 
laborated productions.  It  seems  possible,  however,  to  con- 
struct a  graduated  scale  of  Fletcherian  tragicomedy,  and  be- 
tween the  extremes  where  the  type  stiffens  into  tragedy  on 
the  one  hand,  and  seems  to  ally  itself  with  comedy  on  the 
other,  to  establish  a  tragicomic  norm  that  will  serve  to  define 
the  species  in  its  purity.  In  accordance  with  this  plan,  some 
eight  plays  have  been  selected  that  seem  to  represent  in  inci- 
dent, tone  and  treatment  the  desired  mean  of  the  type  as  it  is 
found  in  the  work  of  Fletcher  and  his  later  collaborators.  At 
least  as  many  again  waver  slightly  one  way  or  the  other,  but 
preserve  many  of  the  essentials  of  the  form,  and  possibly  are 
quite  as  important  as  tragicomedies  when  we  consider  the 
multiform  gradations  that  the  type  assumes  during  the  later 
Elizabethan  period.  They  will  call  for  some  notice  later.  The  v 
eight  plays  chosen  to  illustrate  the  tragicomic  mean  are  the 
following:  "  Loyal  Subject,"  "  Mad  Lover,"  "  Island  Princess," 
"  A  Wife  for  a  Month,"  "  Humorous  Lieutenant,"  "  Queen  of 
Corinth,"  "Knight  of  Malta"  and  "Laws  of  Candy."  Of 
these  the  first  five  are  ascribed  to  Fletcher  alone;  in  the  last 
three  Massinger  is  usually  rated  the  chief  collaborator.  With 
the  exception  of  the  "  Knight  of  Malta  "  which  remained  un- 
classified, all  were  recognized  as  tragicomedies  in  the  second 
folio  of  1679,  the  first  to  include  the  species  among  its^ 
divisions. 

In  these  plays  we  find  only  an  amplification  of  the  main 
traits  of  character  and  technic  noticeable  in  "  Philaster  "  and  "  A 
King  and  No  King"  and  the  earlier  romance  tragedies.  The 
heroic  and  lofty  tone  is  no  whit  abated  in  the  serious  portions, 
tho  in  occasional  comic  scenes  Fletcher's  exhuberant  humor 

*  Cp.  O.  L.  Hatcher,  John  Fletcher  (Chicago,  1905),  p.  29. 


^^/ 


116 

/  is  more  pronounced.^  The  idyllic  atmosphere  of  "  Philaster  " 
is  never  repeated,  and  purely  sentimental  heroes  and  heroines 
in  general  give  way  to  stauncher  types.  We  are  still  conducted 
to  regions  just  beyond  the  more  familiar  seventeenth  century 
world,  ranging  from  the  remote  Molucca  Islands  to  distant 
corners  of  Greece  and  far  Muscovy;  and  the  action  seldom 
takes  us  far  from  court  or  palace.  The  highest  ideals  of  love 
and  honor  and  the  extremes  of  loyalty,  friendship,  constancy 
and  other  noble  emotions  are  kept  in  constant  contrast  with 
the  basest  passions  and  the  deepest  villainy.  The  chief  char- 
acters, good  and  evil,  all  belong  to  the  highest  social  rank,  and 
from  constant  repetition  assume  more  or  less  conventional 
outlines.  The  lustful  monarch  bent  on  seduction,  the  mag- 
nanimous hero  inspired  with  the  loftiest  ideals,  the  plotting 
villain  who  when  caught  in  his  own  snares  repents  and  is  for- 
given, the  noble  heroine,  virtuous  and  eloquent,  and  sometimes 
sentimental  as  well,  whose  chastity  is  unassailable  and  who  will 
live  or  die  with  her  lover,  the  straightforward  friend — all  are 
types  that  recur  again  and  again  among  royal  families,  nobles, 
courtiers,  valiant  generals,  and  heroes  and  heroines  in  ordinary 
that  make  up  the  leading  dramatis  pcrsoncc  of  Fletcherian 
Ntragicomedy. 

No  impossibility  or  extravagance  in  motive  or  situation  is 
left  unattemptcd  to  produce  sensational  or  startling  theatrical 
eftects,  usually  with  a  resulting  overthrow  of  probability  and 
logic  and  a  complete  disregard  of  ethical  value.  In  one  play 
we  have  a  mad  lover  bent  on  cutting  out  his  own  heart  as  a 
present  to  a  disdainful  mistress ;  in  another,  a  valiant  general 
whose  loyalty  to  a  sovereign  who  has  covered  him  with  indig- 
nities is  such  that  he  will  kill  his  own  son  for  rebelling  against 
the  despot;  and  again,  a  ravished  maiden  suing  for  the  life  and 
hand  of  her  princely  seducer.  All  are  pervaded  to  a  greater  or 
less  extent  with  the  passions,  motives  and  accompaniments  of 
actual   tragedy — lust,   jealousy,    revenge,   intrigue,   murderous 

"  Whereas  the  only  comedy  is  furnished  by  the  character  of  the  Captain 
in  Philaster  and  by  Bessus  in  King  and  No  King,  a  number  of  these  plays 
are  freely  interspersed  with  comic  scenes  supplied  by  characters  drawn 
from  the  lower  walks  of  life. 


117 

design,  torture,  rape,  duels,  poisons,  and  the  like.  With  few 
exceptions  villainy  in  one  form  or  another  is  the  root  of  the 
disastrous  complications  that  beset  the  path  of  love  or  virtue, 
or  perhaps  threaten  a  whole  court  with  ruin.  A  favorite 
motive  is  the  lust  of  a  king  or  prince  for  the  betrothed  of 
another,  as  in  the  "  Humorous  Lieutenant,"  "  Queen  of 
Corinth  "  and  "  Wife  for  a  Month,"  or  the  vengeance  of  a 
rejected  suitor,  as  in  the  "  Knight  of  Malta"  and  the  "Island 
Princess " ;  while  an  intriguing  court  favorite,  jealous  of  a 
rival  general,  is  the  evil  genius  in  the  "Loyal  Subject";  and 
in  the  "  Laws  of  Candy  "  the  malice  of  a  father  toward  a  son 
is  responsible  for  the  serious  entanglement.  Notable  in  most\  '^ 
of  these  plays  is  the  prominence  given  to  the  tragicomic  vil- 
lain, a  personage  whose  deviltry  absurdly  contradicts  his  sud- 
den conversion,  and  whose  forgiveness  at  the  end  or  dismissal 
with  perfunctory  punishment  far  from  satisfies  any  sense  of 
moral  justice.  In  "  A  Wife  for  a  ]\Iontli  "  and  the  "  Knight  oi/ 
Malta"  the  evil-doers  are  reinforced  by  diabolical  confederates 
as  black  as  the  villains  of  Webster,  but  they  also  share  in  the 
pardon  meted  out  to  their  masters ;  and  the  repellant  climax 
of  the  "  Queen  of  Corinth,"  described  as  an  "  unexpected 
comedy,"  exemplifies  the  limit  of  the  perverted  ethics  produced 
by  diverting  a  tragic  action  away  from  its  logical  conclusion. 
In  distribution  of  the  serious  interest  these  plays  range 
somewhat  from  a  type  where  the  climax  is  the  culmination  of 
one  continuous  succession  of  averted  dangers,  reverses,  sur- 
prises, and  scenes  of  violence,  as  in  the  "Knight  of  Alalta" 
and  the  "  Island  Princess,"  to  such  plays  as  "  A  King  and  No 
King"  and  the  "Laws  of  Candy,"  where  the  action  moves 
ominously  but  without  disastrous  interruption  to  one  final 
tragic  situation.  In  all,  however,  the  general  tone  and  style 
are  maintained  at  an  elevation  of  dignity  scarcely  distinguish- 
able from  that  of  tragedy,  or  at  least  seldom  far  below  it.  And 
in  each  the  suspense  is  sustained  until  the  very  last,  when  the 
threatening  catastrophe  by  one  means  or  another  is  resolved 
into  happiness  and  reconciliation.  Naturally  every  possible 
tragicomic  device  is  brought  into  play  repeatedly — death  sen-  / 
tences  are  reversed,  executions  stayed,  villainy  is  disclosed,  the 


V 


118 

dead  come  to  life,  the  evil  repent,  rescues  arrive,  duels  are  in 
terrupted,   and   poisons   turn  out   to   be   opiates   or   miscarry- 
entirely. 

The  effective  climax,  on  which  Fletcher  and  his  collabo- 
rators lavished  the  wealth  of  their  ingenuity,  is  always  a  care- 
fully planned  affair,  and  usually  led  up  to  by  a  series  of 
cleverly  arranged  situations  which  place  the  characters  in  such 
interrelation  that  at  the  crucial  moment  the  denouement  un- 
ravels of  its  own  accord.  A  good  example  of  this  is  shown 
in  the  "  Laws  of  Candy."  By  the  law  of  the  land  those  con- 
victed of  ingratitude  may  be  punished  with  death,  if  the 
offended  one  choose  to  claim  the  penalty.  In  the  last  act 
Cassilane,  the  jealous  father,  appears  before  the  Senate  and 
demands  the  execution  of  the  law  against  his  son  Antinous, 
who  has  displaced  him  in  popular  favor.  Straightway,  the 
haughty  princess  Erota,  in  love  with  the  young  hero,  enters 
a  similar  charge  against  the  father,  whose  poverty  she  has  been 
the  means  of  relieving.  Next,  the  noble  Antinous  arises  in 
behalf  of  his  unjust  father  and  charges  the  Princess  in  turn 
with  ingratitude  toward  him.  And  on  top  of  it  all,  Annophil, 
Cassilane's  daughter,  accuses  the  Senate  of  base  ingratitude 
toward  both  father  and  son  for  thus  rewarding  their  noble 
service  to  the  state.  When  the  chain  of  accusations  has 
reached  these  appalling  proportions,  Cassilane,  impressed  with 
the  dire  results  of  his  malice,  repents  his  action  and  with- 
draws his  charge;  the  others  of  course  follow  in  turn,  and 
thus  the  clever,  if  absurdly  impossible,  situation  is  happily 
relieved.  The  knot,  as  in  this  case,  is  often  cut  by  a  timely 
repentance  or  some  similar  change  of  heart  so  common  in 
tragicomedy.  The  Mad  Lover,  at  sight  of  his  supposedly  dead 
brother,  suddenly  loses  his  madness;  and  the  King  in  the 
"  Humorous  Lieutenant "  is  so  impressed  with  the  virtuous 
eloquence  of  Celia  that  he  straightway  repents  his  evil  purpose 
and  opens  the  way  for  the  happy  ending.  Occasionally,  as 
noticed  earlier  in  "  Philaster,"  the  tragic  suspense  is  carried 
on  even  beyond  the  actual  climax.  In  the  "  Loyal  Subject," 
for  example,  the  action  properly  culminates  at  the  end  of  Act 
IV  in  the  fall  of  the  villain  and  the  restoration  of  Archas  to 


119        / 

the  Duke's  favor.  But  in  the  final  act  we  have  the  quixotic 
general  attempting  to  slay  his  own  son  for  treason,  and  he 
is  only  turned  from  his  dire  intention  by  the  threat  of  a  counter 
tragedy. 

Noticeable  in  all  the  plays  thus  far  considered  as  illustra- 
tive of  the  norm  of  Fletcherian  tragicomedy  is  the  fact  that 
amid  all  the  perils  and  trials  that  befall  the  characters  death 
never  occurs  in  any  form,  neither  overtaking  the  most  trivial 
person  nor  the  darkest  villain.  And  in  this  respect  all  conform 
to  Fletcher's  earlier  critical  stipulation  that  a  tragicomedy 
should  "  want  deaths."  Yet  the  rigid  application  of  this  test 
in  differentiating  the  type  from  tragedy  would  prove  unsatis- 
factory, excluding  many  plays  that  were  either  rated  as  tragi- 
comedies in  their  own  day  or  satisfy  our  other  criteria  for 
the  form.  While  Fletcher's  unaided  tragicomedies  never  thus 
impeach  on  the  realm  of  tragedy,  his  collaborated  productions 
occasionally  do.  Such  a  play  is  the  "  Two  Noble  Kinsmen,"^ 
evidently  in  part  by  Shakspere.'^  In  its  romantic  extravagance, 
idyllic  atmosphere,  glorification  of  noble  ideals,  heroic  action 
and  characters,  the  play  preserves  the  familiar  traits  of  the 
genre  form ;  and  the  fact  that  the  Chaucerian  story  imposes 
the  death  of  one  hero  in  the  end  produces  no  spirit  of  tragic 
gloom.  On  the  contrary,  this  very  incident  is  made  the  most 
of  to  effect  a  telling  and  surprising  tragicomic  denouement; 
for  Palamon's  head  is  just  saved  from  the  block  by  the  acci- 
dent that  befalls  his  kinsman,  and  this  tragedy  is  forgotten  in 
the  triumph  of  romantic  love.  Another  example  where  tragedy 
and  tragicomedy  clasp  hands  is  furnished  by  the  "  Lovers' 
Progress,"  a  play  obviously  more  Massinger's  than  Fletcher's. 
Here  the  main  plot,  founded  on  one  of  the  "  Tragi-comicall 
Histories  "  of  the  time,^  turns  on  the  moral  conflict  confront- 

®  Entered  S.  R.  April  8,   1634-35,  as  a  "  TragiComedy." 
'  See  A.   H.  Thorndike,  Influence  of  Beaumont  and  Fletcher  on  Shake- 
speare, p.  44  ff. 

'  A  Tragi-comicall  History  of  our  Times,  under  the  Borrozved  Names  of 
Lisander  and  Calista,  translated  from  the  French  of  Vital  d'Audignier  by 
a  certain  W.  D.  in  1627.  Among  contemporary  prose  romances  similarly 
named  may  be  cited,  a  booke  called  four  true  tragiconiicall  Histories  of 
Late  tymes  by  the  names  of  the  Lady  Cornelia.     The  force  of  blood     The 


120 

ing  Calista  and  Lisander,  who  are  beset  by  a  mutual  passion 
on  the  one  hand,  and  fidelity  to  a  husband  and  friend  on  the 
other.  The  tragic  death  of  Cleander  solves  the  dilemma,  and 
the  lovers,  who  have  struggled  successfully  against  their  pas- 
sion, arc  allowed  to  marry  in  a  year ;  but  the  culprits  are  haled 
off  to  punishment,  and  the  ending  is  not  the  complete  recon- 
ciliation usually  accorded  tragicomedy.  The  "  Prophetess," 
again,  while  described  as  a  "  Tragical  History,"  is  really  a 
tragedy  of  happy  ending;  for  the  epical  structure  of  the  piece 
renders  the  slaying  of  Aper  by  the  hero  Dioclesian  in  the  sec- 
ond act  more  or  less  incidental  to  the  whole.  Otherwise  the 
play,  while  operatic  and  spectacular  to  a  marked  degree,  is  a 
tragicomedy  of  the  austere  and  heroic  type,  at  the  close  of 
which  the  ambitious  and  jealous  Maximilian,  thwarted  in  his 
attempt  on  the  life  of  his  benefactor  by  the  magic  of  the 
Prophetess,  repents,  is  forgiven,  and  all  ends  happily. 

On  the  other  hand,  we  have  a  similar  group  of  collaborated 
productions,  represented  by  the  "  Honest  ]\Ian's  Fortune," 
"  Custom  of  the  Country  "  and  "  Fair  Maid  of  the  Inn,"  which 
verge  as  far  on  the  other  side  of  the  tragicomic  norm.''  In 
point  of  harrowing  situations,  quick  change  of  fortune,  and 
danger  of  death,  they  are  tragicomedies  of  pronounced  cast, 
and  yet  in  other  respects  represent  the  union  of  the  Fletcherian 
form  with  comedy.  Marked  differences  in  general  tone  and 
character  clearly  separate  these  productions  from  the  plays 
that  define  the  type  in  its  purity.  The  scene  is  brought  nearer 
home ;  heroic  actions  and  extreme  emotions  are  tempered ;  the 
atmosphere  becomes  more  natural ;  kings,  queens  and  generals 
give  way  to  dukes,  counts  and  gentlemen  and  ladies  in  more 
ordinary  walks  of  life;  and  above  all,  purely  comic  portions 
are  given  almost  equal  prominence  with  the  serious  themes. 
In  short,  these  plays  seem  to  approach  most  nearly  the  spirit 

two  Damsells.  and  The  Spanish  Lady  Don  Diego  Pucdcser  (?  by  Sir 
William  Berkeley). — S.  R.  Nov.  27,  1638 ;  also  Alexander  Hart's  Tragi- 
Comicall  History  of  Alexto  and  Angelica,  Containing  the  progresse  of  a 
zealous  Candide,  and  Masculine  Love.  With  a  various  mutability  of  a 
feminine  affection.  Together  with  loves  Justice  thereupon,  London,  1640. 
'Of  these  the  first  and  last  were  denominated  tragicomedies  in  the  1679 
folio,  while  the  Custom  of  the  Country  was  left  unclassified. 


121 

and  form  of  the  contemporary  Spanish  Cloak  and  Sword 
drama.  Whether  or  not  Fletcher  was  directly  influenced  by 
Lope  and  his  school,  he,  like  many  of  his  contemporaries,  was 
using  Spanish  plots;  and  certainly  many  of  the  traits  of  the 
Peninsular  drama  are  preserved  in  his  work.^° 

Questions  of  honor  of  various  sorts  are  especially  promi- 
nent in  these  three  plays.  A  woman's  character  is  at  stake 
in  the  "  Honest  Alan's  Fortune  " ;  in  the  "  Custom  of  the 
Country "  we  have  the  episode  of  the  mother  who  will  not 
violate  the  laws  of  hospitality  even  to  betray  the  man  whom 
she  thinks  has  killed  her  son ;  and  a  trivial  quarrel  in  the  "  Fair 
Maid  of  the  Inn  "  embroils  two  noble  families  in  feud.  Duels 
between  gentlemen  are  the  order  of  the  day,  and  thrilling 
surprises  and  reverses  keep  the  interest  keyed  to  a  high  pitch 
in  spite  of  the  plentifully  interspersed  comedy  and  burlesque. 
In  the  "  Honest  Man's  Fortune "  bloodshed  is  repeatedly 
averted  by  the  timely  intervention  of  the  wronged  Duchess, 
whose  insulted  honor  is  the  cause  of  quarrel ;  and  the  climactic 
scene  in  Act  IV,  which  brings  the  repentance  of  the  husband, 
is  crowded  with  a  lightning  succession  of  averted  tragedies  and 
thrilling  surprises.  But  in  many  ways  this  production  of  com- 
posite authorship  is  only  a  comedy  of  manners  located  in  Paris, 
and  in  the  incident  of  the  Honest  Man  disguised  as  a  waiting 
maid  even  seems  to  be  burlesquing  the  love-lorn  damsel  in 
page  attire.  A  romance  of  Cervantes  underlies  the  "  Custom 
of  the  Country,"  a  play  suffused  with  tragicomic  movement  in 
spite  of  its  coarsely  comic  sub-plot.  The  direst  misfortunes 
and  dangers  beset  the  course  of  romantic  love,  tossed  hither 
and  thither  on  the  wave  of  an  ever  fluctuating  fortune.  The 
distracted  hero's  lament  in  one  place, 

My  life's  so  full 
Of  various  changes,  that  I  now  despair 
Of  any  certain  port;  one  trouble  ending, 
A  new,  and  worse,  succeeds  it, 

bespeaks  the  nature  of  the  main  interest.  In  Zenocia,  the 
equally  tried  heroine,  we  have  a  repetition  of  the  chaste  and 
scathingly  eloquent  type,  whose  reverses  are  finally  rewarded 

"For  literature  on  this  subject,  see  Schelling,  II,  530, 


122 

by  union  with  her  noble  lover  when  repentance  has  turned  the 
hearts  of  their  enemies.  But  in  this  play  and  in  the  "  Fair 
Maid  of  the  Inn "  the  comic  portions  are  elaborated  to  an 
extent  that  tempers  the  tone  of  the  whole ;  and  in  the  "  Spanish 
Curate,"  a  play  perhaps  to  be  included  in  this  group,  the 
prominence  of  the  sub-plot  relegates  the  serious  theme  to  a 
place  of  subordinate  concern. 

Equally  identified  with  the  above  as  Fletcherian  tragicome- 
^  dies  of  lighter  cast  are  the  more  romantic  plays  of  the 
"  Sea  Voyage "  and  "  Women  Pleased, "^^  in  both  of  which 
comedy,  extravaganza  and  sentimental  love  are  interwoven 
with  a  main  serious  interest  that  results  from  the  possibilities 
of  a  romantic  plot  rather  than  from  villainy  or  evil  passions. 
The  "  Sea  Voyage  "  particularly  is  a  peculiar  combination  of 
thrilling  adventure,  distress,  and  even  horrors,  with  the  viva- 
city and  humor  of  comedy,  and  crowns  its  action  with  a  most 
efifective  tragicomic  denouement,  where  a  wholesale  human 
sacrifice  ordered  by  the  Amazon  Queen  is  stayed  by  the  oppor- 
tune appearance  of  her  supposedly  dead  husband,  whose  manes 
are  about  to  be  appeased  in  this  way.  "  Women  Pleased"  is 
equally  composite  in  tone  and  action.  In  its  main  plot  it  is 
strongly  reminiscent  of  the  medieval  motive  of  the  Wife  of 
Bath's  Tale,  whose  effective  conclusion  is  made  the  most  of  in 
the  happy  ending. 

To  these  plays  which  obviously  indicate  the  point  where 
Fletcherian  tragicomedy  and  comedy  shade  into  one  another, 
others  might  be  added  in  some  number  which  admit  serious- 
ness and  accordingly  raise  some  doubt  as  to  their  rigid  exclu- 
sion from  the  t3'pe  form.  Certainly  no  definite  barrier  between 
the  two  species  can  be  erected ;  but  general  tone  as  well  as 
incident  must  be  considered  in  determining  the  claims  of  a 
play  to  the  classification  of  tragicomedy.  To  admit  within 
the  pale  all  plays  in  which  characters  are  brought  "  near  death," 
and  thereby  to  comply  with  one  part  of  Fletcher's  own  defi- 
nition for  the  form,  is  obviously  impracticable.  For  in  many 
of  the  broadest  comedies  tragicomic  devices  abound — wounds 
inflicted  and  lives  momentarily  imperilled — for  gain   in  the- 

"  Women  Pleas' d,  A  Tragy-Comcdy,  1679  folio. 


123     / 

atrical  effectiveness ;  and  it  is  certainly  a  far  cry  from  plays 
like  "Nice  Valor"  and  "Love's  Pilgrimage"  to  "Philaster" 
and  the  "  Knight  of  Malta."  It  seems  reasonable,  then,  con-\ 
sidering  the  exalted  and  heightened  tone  that  is  characteristic 
of  the  tragicomic  mean,  to  allow  the  test  of  style  to  enter  into 
our  criteria  in  distinguishing  the  form  from  comedy  on  the 
one  hand,  just  as  its  severance  from  tragedy  at  the  opposite 
end  of  the  scale  is  to  be  determined  by  the  character  of  they 
denouement. 

With  the  bounds  of  Fletcherian  tragicomedy  thus  arbi- 
trarily indicated  and  the  characteristics  of  the  type  reviewed 
in  some  detail  in  its  various  gradations,  it  remains  in  con- 
clusion to  emphasize  the  peculiar  attribute  of  the  form  that 
represents  the  distinctive  contribution  of  its  authors  to  Eng- 
lish tragicomedy,  and  accounts  for  its  great  stage  success. 
Only  a  cursory  glance  is  necessary  to  reveal  that,  amid  all  the\ 
advances  that  the  new  type  represents  over  preceding  tragi- 
comedy, it  is  the  handling  of  the  denouement  more  than  any- 
thing else  that  separates  it  furthest  from  its  forebears,  and 
underlies  the  secret  of  its  theatrical  effectiveness  and  im- 
mediate and  long  continued  popularity.  Other  authors  in  pre-/ 
ceding  realistic  and  domestic  drama  had  involved  the  fortunes 
of  their  characters  in  tragic  entanglements  and  managed  to 
extricate  them  safely,  but  usually  by  the  clumsy  aid  of  the 
conventional  disguised  personage  whose  identity  and  purpose 
were  no  secret  to  the  audience,  or  by  some  other  device  equally 
calculated  to  forecast  the  outcome.  In  Fletcherian  tragi- 
comedy these  weaknesses  of  technic  have  entirely  disappeared. 
Suspense  is  maintained  until  the  very  end,  and  the  action,N  x/" 
whether  advanced  from  the  start  by  constant  reversals  and 
surprisals  of  fortune  or  led  up  to  one  serious  climax,  may  end 
either  in  a  triumph  or  catastrophe  so  far  as  the  spectators  have 
any  means  of  divining.  This  trait  of  technic — the  absolute 
concealment  of  the  character  of  the  denouement — from  now 
on  becomes  a  most  important  and  determining  factor  in  tragi- 
comedy, and  is  rarely  neglected  by  future  cultivators  of  the 
form.  To  realize  the  immense  gain  in  effect  secured  by  its/ 
observance,    one   need   only   compare   a   tragicomedy  of   the 


124 

Fletclicrian  type  with  such  a  play  as  the  "Heir"  (1620)  of 
Thomas  I\Iay,  wherein  the  old  order  of  technic  is  preserved  by 
the  use  of  the  expository  soliloquy,  and  the  possibilities  of  a 
most  effective  tragicomedy  thereby  precluded.  It  may  not  be 
determined  whether  Fletcher  and  his  collaborators  derived  the 
idea  of  thus  enhancing  the  effectiveness  of  tragicomedy  from 
Italian  or  Spanish  precedent — to  one  of  which  at  least  they 

^were  definitely  indebted — or  invented  it  themselves.^^^  At  any 
rate,  they  were  quick  to  perceive  the  value  that  a  play  which 
could  keep  the  interest  of  the  spectators  constantly  wrought  up 
to  a  high  pitch  of  excitement,  and  at  the  same  time  satisfy  the 
ever-popular  preference  for  the  happy  ending,  oft'ered  over  all 

\other  dramatic  forms,  and  they  cultivated  it  to  the  full.  Tragi- 
comedy in  all  its  shades  becomes  now  the  most  frequently 
cultivated  form  in  the  work  of  those  who  carried  on  and 
developed  the  Beaumont  and  Fletcher  traditions — ]\Iassinger, 
Shirley,  Davenant,  and  the  host  of  minor  dramatists  of  the 
reign  of  Charles  I — and  it  even  exerted  considerable  influence 
on  contemporary  writers  of  realistic  and  domestic  drama. 

To  this  last  group  of  playwrights  some  attention  is  due  at 
this  point  before  considering  the  logical  development  of  the 
subject  in  the  continuators  of  the  romantic  drama.  For  in 
the  work  of  Heywood,  INIiddleton,  Dekker,  and  one  or  two 
others,  tragicomedy  during  this  period  is  not  unrepresented, 
and  even  offers  some  departures  from  the  prevalent  form  that 
call  for  special  notice.  A  number  of  these  plays  seem  to  have 
been  directly  influenced  by  the  popular  Fletcherian  type;  the 
most  noticeable  comparison  being  offered  by  Hey^vood's 
"  Royal  King  and  Loyal  Subject,"^^  which  must  have  followed 
Fletcher's  tragicomedy  of  the  same  theme  and  probably  owed 
its  inspiration  to  it.  Both  plays  are  versions  of  the  same  story 
in  Painter's  "  Palace  of  Pleasure,"  with  differences  in  treat- 
ment characteristic  of  the  two  authors.     Instead  of  Aluscovy, 

""  True,  this  concealment  of  denouement  and  final  surprise  are  features 
of  Ben  Jonson's  Epicosne  (acted  1609),  which  possibly  may  have  inspired 
the  practise  in  Fletcher  and  his  fellows.  The  reverse  seems  more  prob- 
able, however. 

'"See  edition  by  K.  W.  Tibbals,  Pennsylvania  Thesis  (1906),  with  critical 
introduction  on  sources  and  relations  with  Fletcher's  Loyal  Subject. 


125 

the  scene  in  Heywood  is  brought  to  England,  where  the  Loyal 
Subject  is  a  "  Martiall,"  his  traducers  two  envious  lords,  and 
his  sovereign  a  King  of  England,  who,  whether  swayed  by 
slanderous  tongues  or  from  mere  capriciousness,  is  bent  on 
testing  to  the  full  the  loyalty  of  his  patient  subject.  With  a 
humility  worthy  of  Patient  Grissel,  the  noble  Marshal  submits 
to  every  indignity  and  demand,  until  at  the  end  of  Act  IV  his 
fidelity  and  generosity  have  so  prevailed  with  the  monarch  that 
he  is  given  the  princess  to  wife  and  restored  to  full  favor. 
Here  is  the  logical  conclusion  of  the  play,  but  Heywood,  like 
Fletcher,  adopts  the  device  of  carrying  the  suspense  over  into 
the  next  act,  only  does  it  less  skillfully.  The  slanderers  are 
again  allowed  the  King's  ear;  the  Marshal's  fortunes  undergo 
another  reverse ;  he  is  condemned  for  high  treason  on  a 
trumped  up  charge  and  sentenced  to  die.  But  at  the  point  of 
execution,  the  capricious  monarch  relents — whether  by  a  sud- 
den change  of  heart  or  in  accord  with  a  prearranged  plan  of 
his  own,  is  not  clear — reverses  the  sentence  and  banishes  the 
base  accusers.  As  usual  in  Heywood,  the  main  theme  is 
parodied  by  a  comic  sub-plot  barely  connected  with  the  main 
design,  in  which  a  captain,  a  clown  and  other  realistic  char- 
acters are  the  moving  figures. 

The  "  Royal  King  and  Loyal  Subject"  is  the  tragicomedy  of 
Heywood  that  nearest  challenges  comparison  with  the  type 
cultivated  by  his  courtly  contemporaries,  altho  late  in  his  career 
he  turned  again  to  the  same  kind  of  drama  and  produced  in  the 
"  Challenge  for  Beauty "  a  tragicomedy  of  romantic  plot — 
welded  of  course  to  England — which  similarly  points  to  the 
inspiration  of  Fletcher  and  Massinger.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  early  "  Fortune  by  Land  and  Sea,"  in  which  Rowley  collab- 
orated, like  the  "  Fair  Maid  of  the  West,"  illustrates  the  older 
and  less  skillful  method  of  uniting  tragic  and  comic  material, 
and  have  little  in  common  with  the  Fletcherian  type.  Both 
combine  stories  of  English  domestic  life  with  stirring  adven- 
tures, which  take  the  characters  off  to  sea  or  distant  lands. 
Duels,  violent  deaths,  battles  at  sea,  and  strange  happenings, 
the  whole  plentifully  interspersed  with  English  clovvnage,  make 
up  a  jumbled  action  which  concludes  satisfactorily  for  those 


126 

with  whom  our  sympathies  are  alUed.  Usually  uo  care  is 
taken  to  maintain  suspense  or  hold  the  outcome  in  the  balance. 
The  surprises  are  all  prepared  for  by  a  constant  shifting  of 
the  scene  from  one  plot  to  the  other,  a  device  which  serves  to 
keep  the  spectators  continually  informed  of  the  trend  of  events ; 
and  the  perils  and  marvelous  adventures  that  befall  Spencer 
and  his  faithful  Bess  in  the  second  Part  of  the  "  Fair  !Maid  " 
are  met  with  and  disposed  of  in  turn  in  the  old  chronicle  way 
until  the  lovers  are  at  last  united  and  sent  home  in  happiness. 

As  a  playwright  Heywood  shared  little  in  the  more  critical 
attitude  of  his  chief  contemporaries  toward  the  drama.  He 
belonged  rather  among  those  whose  theory  of  dramatic  art 
was  based  on  popular  taste,  and  he  constructed  his  plays  accord- 
ingly, mingling  the  tragic  and  comic  haphazardly  as  the  last 
two  plays  illustrate.  His  conception  of  tragicomedy,  if  ascer- 
tained from  the  one  play  which  he  himself  so  describes,  was 
probably  only  that  of  long-standing  stage  tradition.  Certainly 
the  "  English  Traveller "  has  little  in  common  with  the  pre- 
vailing type,  yet,  according  to  the  author's  preface  of  1633, 
it  is  a  "  tragi-comedy,"  and  more  than  that,  "  one  reserved 
amongst  two  hundred  and  twenty  "  which  Heywood  claims  to 
have  written  wholly  or  in  part.  H  this  astounding  statement 
be  taken  literally,  Heywood's  own  original  output  of  tragi- 
comedies must  have  been  enormous.  But  neither  in  subject 
matter  nor  construction  is  this  play  related  to  the  Fletcherian 
form.  It  is  purely  a  domestic  drama  of  sentiment,  involving 
a  moral  problem  and  outcome  similar  to  those  of  the  author's 
earlier  "  Woman  Killed  with  Kindness  " — the  wife  who  has 
been  taken  in  adultery  dying  repentant  after  being  reproached 
with  her  sin.  While  thus  related  to  tragedy,  the  play  departs 
radically  from  the  current  conceptions  of  that  form  of  drama. 
It  lacks  the  courts,  kings,  foreign  setting,  bloodshed  and  other 
accompaniments  of  established  convention ;  and  belongs  rather 
among  serious  middle-class  plays  which  waver  between  domestic 
tragedy  and  sentimental  comedy.  And  the  ending,  if  far  from 
happy,  at  any  rate  satisfies  our  sense  of  moral  justice,  so  that 
the  author's  title  of  tragicomedy  is  not  a  complete  misnomer. 

A  far  more  anomalous  use  of  the  title  term  is  furnished  by 


127 

the  equally  unromantic  "  Witch  of  Edmonton,"  printed  in  1658, 
years  after  it  was  written/^  as  "  A  known  true  Story.  Com- 
posed into  A  Tragi-Comedy,"  and  ascribed  to  the  joint  author- 
ship of  Rowley,  Dekker,  Ford  and  others.  Far  from  being 
a  tragicomedy  at  all,  the  play  is  a  pure  domestic  tragedy, 
reaching  heights  of  remarkable  pathos  and  power.  The  whole 
harrowing  nature  of  the  two-fold  plot  is  summed  up  in  the 
introductory  distich : 

Forc'd    marriage,    murder ;    murder    blood    requires ; 
Reproach,  revenge ;  revenge  hell's  help  desires. 

The  first  motive  deals  with  the  domestic  entanglements  of 
Frank,  Susan  and  Winnifred,  involving  a  forced  marriage  and 
culminating  in  murder;  the  supernatural  concerns  the  weird 
figure  of  old  Mother  Sawyer,  driven  by  the  persecution  of  her 
neighbors  to  ally  herself  with  witchcraft.  It  is  the  Witch's 
familiar,  in  the  shape  of  a  black  dog,  that,  rubbing  against 
the  leg  of  Frank,  impels  him  to  murder  his  innocent  wife.  He 
attempts  to  hide  his  crime  by  casting  suspicion  on  others ; 
but  his  guilt  is  discovered  in  a  scene  of  remarkable  tragic 
intensity,  in  which  appear  the  ghost  of  the  murdered  Susan 
and  the  evil  spirit  of  the  black  dog.  The  last  act  shows  the 
Witch,  apprehended  for  the  mischief  and  crimes  her  magic 
have  caused,  on  the  way  to  execution;  and  next,  the  deeply 
repentant  Frank,  also  convicted  and  led  off  to  expiate  his  crime. 
But  the  action  does  not  end  in  a  spirit  of  tragic  depres- 
sion.    The  concluding  lines  are : 

Join,   friends,  in  sorrow ;  make  of  all  the  best : 
Harms  past  may  be  lamented,  not  redrest. 

The  play  is  pervaded  thruout  by  a  moral  earnestness,  and 
enforces  a  lesson  of  deep  impressiveness  in  that  day  of  witch- 
craft; and  thus  it  may  be  considered  a  belated  example  of  the 
old  morality  idea  of  tragicomedy. 

Middleton's  contribution  to  the  species  encompasses  three 
plays.     They  were  written  in  the  latter  part  of  his  career  when 

^^  The  play  is  founded  on  an  account  of  one  "  Elizabeth  Sawyer  of 
Islington,"  who  was  "executed  in  1621  for  witchcraft"  (Schelling,  I, 
362)  ;  and  is  thereby  linked  to  contemporary  murder  plays,  of  which  there 
had  been  quite  a  vogue  about  the  beginning  of  the  century. 


128 

Fletcher  and  Massinger  were  in  the  ascendency,  and  while 
more  or  less  unlike,  all  show  the  influence  in  one  way  or 
/another  of  the  popular  romantic  form.  The  celebrated  "  Fair 
Quarrel,"  in  which  Rowley  collaborated,  belongs  clearly  with 
the  domestic  and  problematic  tragicomedies ;  yet  the  .main 
interest,  which  involves  a  point  of  honor  culminating  in  a 
duel,  relates  it  to  the  romantic  type  of  his  contemporaries, 
\ where  similar  motives  but  of  less  human  interest  are  frequent. 
Furthermore,  the  plot  is  conducted  to  its  happy  ending  with  an 
ingenuity  and  telling  force  that  challenge  favorable  comparison 
with  Fletcher's  tragicomic  art,  but  without  his  usual  con- 
versions of  character  and  melodramatic  excess.  In  the 
"  Spanish  Gypsy,"  on  the  other  hand,  Middleton  and  Rowley 
turned  to  the  novels  of  Cervantes  for  material,  and  produced 
a  play  that  takes  a  definite  place  beside  the  tragicomedies  of 
Fletcher  that  hark  back  to  Spanish  sources.  The  criminal 
injury  inflicted  on  the  innocent  heroine  at  the  start  recalls  the 
dark  beginning  of  the  "  Queen  of  Corinth,"  but  the  reconcilia- 
tion is  effected  wdth  far  less  shock  to  the  moral  sense,  and  the 
serious  portions  are  accompanied  thruout  with  a  {Profusion  of 
comedy.  Of  yet  different  cast  is  the  "  Tragi-Coomodie,  called 
The  Witch,"  the  old  manuscript  play  that  represents  Aliddle- 
ton's  unaided  contribution  to  the  species.  Here  we  have  a 
tragedy  of  the  later  revenge  type  turned  in  the  mould  of 
Fletcherian  tragicomedy,  and  vying  with  IMarston's  '"  Malcon- 
tent "  in  dark  intrigue  and  tragic  accessories :  a  romantic  plot 
furnishes  three  revenge  motives ;  a  duchess  is  compelled  by  her 
husband  to  drink  from  the  skull  of  her  slain  father;  a  jealous 
husband  stabs  those  whom  he  takes  to  be  his  adulterous  wife 
and  her  paramour ;  poisons  are  taken ;  and  the  witch  scenes  con- 
tribute their  quota  of  repellent  features.  Both  in  the  tangk  of 
tragic  complications  that  involve  everyone  and  in  the  conven- 
tional devices  of  the  tragicomic  dcnoucuwiit  with  its  happy  dis- 
coveries and  sudden  conversions  of  character,  the  influence  of 
Fletcher's  technic  is  strongly  evident.  One  character,  indeed, 
is  disposed  of  behind  the  scenes  to  clear  the  w^ay  for  the  happy 
ending,  but  the  rest  are  joyfully  united.  The  wrong  persons 
have  been  stabbed,  and  they  only  wounded,  poisons  are  of  the 


129 

tragicomic  kind,  and  the  Duke,  discovered  dead,  arises  in  time 
to  save  his  Duchess  from  execution. 

The  prevaiHng  fashion  of  tragicomedy  seems  also  to  have 
induced  Webster  to  produce  the  "  Devil's  Law  Case,"  and 
Dekker,  "  Match  Me  in  London."  The  former  production, 
published  in  1623  as  "A  new  Tragecomoedy,"  has  the  distinc- 
tion of  being  the  only  English  popular  play  known  to  have 
been  printed  as  a  tragicomedy  between  the  pastorals  of  Daniel 
and  Fletcher  and  1630.  It  offers  a  plot  of  Italian  intrigue, 
involving  villainy,  revenge  and  murderous  design,  with  few 
characters  that  enlist  our  sympathies.  The  complicated  plot 
unrolls  as  it  progresses,  and  culminates  in  a  trial  scene  wherein 
the  various  intrigues  end  and  the  characters  are  dismissed  with 
light  punishments.^*  The  tragicomic  device  employed  in  hav- 
ing the  murderous  assault  of  the  villain  Romelio  upon  the 
wounded  Contarino  perform  a  surgical  operation  that  saves 
the  latter 's  life,  deserves  to  go  on  record  with  a  similar  ab- 
surdity in  "A  Wife  for  a  Month,"  where  a  poison,  instead 
of  killing  its  victim,  proves  an  effective  cure  for  melancholy. 
Dekker's  "  Match  Me  in  London "  offers  no  new  departures 
froni  the  conventional  features  of  Fletcherian  tragicomedy: 
the* lust  of  a  monarch  for  a  merchant's  virtuous  wife,  and  his 
final  repentance,  rewarded  with  the  happy  discovery  that  his 
supposedly  murdered  queen  still  lives.  And  the  "  Wonder  of 
a  Kingdom  "  of  the  same  author,  while  equally  a  romantic  play 
of  foreign  intrigue,  is  too  closely  welded  to  comedy  to  come 
within  our  scope. 

With  the  chronicling  of  an  insignificant  tragicomedy  of 
Robert  Daborne,  "  The  Poor-Man's  Comfort,"^*^  assigned  be- 
fore 1613,  and  the  anonymous  "  Dick  of  Devonshire,"^^  whose 

"For  this  play,  see  E.  E.  Stoll,  John  Webster  (1905),  p.  175. 

1=  Reprinted  in  Anglia  (1898),  XXI. 

"Reprinted  by  Bullen  from  Egerton  MS.  1994,  in  Old  Plays  (1883), 
Vol.  II.  Assigned  by  Fleay  to  Davenport,  Ibid.,  p,  4  n.  With  it  should 
also  be  mentioned  a  yet  unprinted  play  from  the  same  manuscript:  The 
two  noble  ladies  and  the  converted  conjurer.  .  .  .  A  trage-comicall 
historie  oftentymes  acted  with  approbation  at  the  Red  Bull  in  St.  Johns 
Streete  by  the  company  of  ye  Reuells.  1619-1622.  Described  in  Bullen, 
Old  Plays,  II,  430 ;  also  Catalogue  of  Additions  to  the  Manuscripts  in  the 
British  Museum  (1854-1875),  1877,  II,  941. 


130 

stirring  adventure,  sea-fights  and  English  hero  recall  Heywood, 
we  may  conclude  that  by-way  of  our  subject  that  has  to  do  with 
the  playwrights  who  belong  more  to  the  old  order  of  the 
drama,  and  whose  cultivation  of  tragicomedy  is  in  response  to 
current  vogue  and  rather  incidental  to  their  main  dramatic 
activity.  Most  of  the  tragicomedies  that  fall  within  this  class 
show  the  influence  of  the  type  innovated  and  popularized  by 
Fletcher  and  his  collaborators ;  an  influence  most  apparent  per- 
haps in  Heywood's  "Royal  King  and  Loyal  Subject"  and 
Middleton's  "Witch."  On  the  other  hand,  the  old  manner  of 
tragicomic  drama  is  preserved  in  the  "  Fair  Maid  of  the 
West " ;  while  such  plays  as  the  "  English  Traveller  "  and  the 
"  Witch  of  Edmonton  "  deserve  special  notice  as  illustrating 
the  continued  wide  range  of  contemporary  ideas  of  the  genre. 
But  such  plays  are  the  exceptions,  and  the  main  development 
of  tragicomedy  by  the  Caroline  dramatists  is  directly  along  the 
lines  established  for  it  by  Beaumont  and  Fletcher. 

Massinger's  collaborating  hand  has  already  been  met  with 
in  a  number  of  the  tragicomedies  of  Fletcher,  with  whom  he 
was  closely  associated  during  the  first  part  of  his  career,  and 
is  marked  by  a  seriousness  of  purpose  and  earnestness  of  tone, 
seen  best  perhaps  in  the  "Lovers'  Progress,"  differing  far 
from  the  irresponsible  manner  of  his  master.  We  are  now 
concerned  with  his  unaided  tragicomedies,  written  subsequent 
to  Fletcher's  death  in  1625,  in  which  he  carried  on  the  tradi- 
tions of  the  type  he  had  helped  to  popularize.  As  a  disciple 
of  the  new  school,  in  all  forms  of  drama  he  continued  to  make 
use  of  the  romantic  material  of  popular  vogue,  with  its  court 
settings,  its  royalties  and  nobilities,  and  its  themes  of  love  and 
war.  The  bounds  between  the  different  species  are  accordingly 
y^not  always  clearly  defined.  Yet  Massinger.  writing  alone, 
seems  to  have  developed  certain  peculiarities  of  his  art  that 
unconsciously  led  to  a  finer  distinction  between  the  provinces 
of  tragedy  and  tragicomedy  than  hitherto  attained.  His 
feeling  that  a  tragic  theme  should  be  allowed  its  inevitable 
conclusion,  his  discrimination  in  moral  values,  his  unwilling- 
ness to  sacrifice  character  to  stage  eft'ect,  and  his  regard  for 
poetic  justice,  led  to  a  more  or  less  definite  boundary  between 


131 

the  themes  and  motives  chosen  for  the  two  forms.  The  tragi- 
comedies of  Massinger  are  marked  by  a  notable  absence  of 
villainy,  murderous  intent,  and  the  darker  passions  of  revenge 
and  lust,  all  of  which  are  confined  to  their  proper  sphere  of 
tragedy.  As  a  rule  they  are  relatively  tempered  in  motive  and 
incident.  We  are  treated  to  fewer  thrilling  escapes  from  the 
jaws  of  death,  less  violent  contrasts  and  startling  surprises, 
and  a  comparative  dearth  of  repentant  sinners,  in  marked  con- 
trast to  the  reckless  profusion  of  Fletcher.  Suspicion,  jeal- 
ousy, trials  of  chastity,  and  intrigue  supply  the  tragic  possi- 
bilities, which  together  with  a  background  often  of  war  and 
battle,  and  a  style  always  exalted  and  grave,  make  up  the  de- 
termining characteristics  of  the  author's  unaided  contribution 
to  the  species.  ^ 

Of  Massinger's  extant  plays,  some  eight  serve  to  define  the 
scope  of  his  tragicomedy :  "  Renegado,"  "  Picture,"  "  Emperor 
of  the_East^^'A  Very  Woman?^ "  Ba^hf ul^Lover^JlB^nd- 
man,"  "  Great  Duke  o^f  Florence,"  and  "  Maid  of  Honor."^^ 
Airreadily  fall  within  the  limits  established  for  the  form  in  the 
Fletcherian  plays,  ranging  in  intensity  from  the  tragicomic 
norm  to  a  type  only  distinguishable  from  comedy  by  gravity 
of  tone.  None,  however,  encroach  on  tragedy  by  admitting 
fatalities.  True,  Massinger's  tragedies  do  not  always  end  in 
the  overwhelming  catastrophe  and  unrelieved  horror  of  popu- 
lar prescription.  The  "  Virgin  Martyr "  ends  in  death  but 
celebrates  a  moral  triumph.  And  "  Believe  as  You  List," 
whose  action  is  devoid  of  bloodshed,  would  have  been  made 
by  Fletcher  into  a  tragicomedy,  and  the  hero  Antiochus  not 
only  vindicated  in  the  end  but  saved.  But  such  plays,  if  half 
tragedies  perhaps,  are  definitely  removed  above  tragicomedy, 
even  of  the  type  of  the  "  Prophetess  "  and  the  "  Two  Noble 
Kinsmen."     On  the  other  hand,  the  demarcation  of  the  type 

"  Of  these  the  first  five  appeared  in  quarto  as  tragicomedies  between 
1630  and  1655;  the  Bondman  and  Maid  of  Honor  were  left  unclassified 
by  the  publisher,  and  the  Great  Duke  of  Florence  was  printed  as  a 
"  Comicall  Historic."  Three  of  the  lost  plays  of  Massinger,  The  Noble 
Choice ;  or,  the  Orator,  Philenzo  and  Hippolita,  and  The  Prisoner ;  or,  The 
Fair  Anchoress  of  Pausilippo,  all  entered  on  the  Stationers'  Register  in 
1653,  are  also  rated  as  tragicomedies. 


132 

from  romantic  comedy  is  not  so  convincing.  The  "  Guardian," 
called  a  "  Comical  History,"  introduces  one  scene  of  tragic 
horror,  but  the  play  as  a  whole  has  little  of  the  sustained 
seriousness  of  tragicomedy,  and  gives  rather  the  effect  of 
Fletcherian  extravaganza.  And  the  "  Parliament  of  Love " 
likewise  falls  without  the  pale  as  too  closely  affiliated  with 
comedy. 

Of  the  tragicomedies,  the  "Bashful  Lover,"  "A  Very 
Woman  "  and  the  "  Bondman  "  most  nearly  approach  the  man- 
ner of  Fletcher  in  fullness  of  incident,  profusion  of  tragic  pos- 
sibilities, and  thrills  and  surprises.  In  all  the  dominant  interest 
is  a  romantic  love  story,  in  which  lovers,  crossed  by  supposed 
inequality  of  rank  are  finally  happily  united  by  the  discovery 
that  the  lowly  hero  is  of  noble  birth.  The  bashful  Hortensio 
turns  out  to  be  the  Duke  of  Alilan,  the  supposed  slave  Pedro 
is  the  disguised  Prince  of  Tarent,  and  the  Bondman  Marullo 
is  discovered  to  be  Pisander,  a  noble  of  Thebes.  Plotting  and 
evil  are  conspicuously  absent.  Seriousness  is  supplied  more 
by  battles,  duels,  rescues  and  the  like,  and  such  dangers  as 
result  from  the  romantic  course  of  events.  The  hero  is  always 
a  person  of  high  sentiment  and  conduct,  whose  patient  devo- 
tion or  reverential  love  for  the  lady  of  his  heart  renders  his 
nobility  more  real  and  appealing  than  that  usually  encountered 
in  contemporary  romance.  In  the  modest,  chivalrous  and 
self-sacrificing  Hortensio,  Massinger  achieved  his  masterpiece 
of  noble  characterization.  And  the  heroines,  while  less  ideal- 
ized, are  of  the  type  that  rise  to  the  occasion  and  eloquently 
declaim  their  determination  to  suffer  the  fate  of  their  lovers. 

The  "Renegado"  and  the  "Emperor  of  the  East"  also 
offer  tragic  situations,  but  are  without  the  heroic,  martial  at- 
mosphere of  the  "  Bashful  Lover  "  and  the  "  Bondman  "  and 
the  quick  and  violent  action  of  "A  Very  Woman."  They 
depend  more  on  romantic  intrigue  and  rise  to  a  lower  level  of 
dignity  in  tone  and  event.  In  the  "  Emperor  of  the  East," 
which  the  author  himself  denominated  a  tragicomedy,  we 
have  a  play  of  relatively  slight  construction.  The  serious  in- 
terest, arising  from  a  trivial  incident — the  episode  of  the  apple, 
concerns  the  Emperor's  jealous  suspicions  of  his  wife  and  his 


133 

kinsman  Paulinus,  which  cause  him  to  sentence  the  latter  to 
death  before  he  discovers  the  groundlessness  of  his  fears.  The 
"  Renegado  "  combines  several  stories  into  a  single  plot,  in  which 
the  passion  of  the  Turkish  Princess  Donusa  for  the  Venetian 
Vitelli  brings  down  the  threatened  disaster.  The  play  thruout 
is  strongly  religious.  Vitelli  not  only  refuses  to  save  his  own 
life  and  that  of  the  princess  by  renouncing  his  faith,  but  even 
converts  her  to  Christianity,  whereupon  both  are  condemned 
to  die.  But  the  Jesuit,  the  good  genius  of  the  play,  with  the 
aid  of  the  converted  renegado,  contrives  their  escape,  and  thus 
averts  the  tragedy. 

Somewhat  apart  from  the  above  five  plays  stand  the  "  Pic- 
ture,"  the   -'  Great   Duke  of   Florence "   and   the   "  Maid   of 
Honor,"  also  tragicomedies  but  of  milder  stamp.     The  essen- 
tial distinction  lies  in  the  fact  that  in  these  plays,  unlike  the 
others,  the  action  never  at  any  time  works  up  to  a  real  tragic 
situation  where  life  is  actually  imperilled.     Yet  the  gravity  of 
motive,  serious  purpose  and  weighty  tone  clearly  exalt  them 
above  the  level  of  comedy.     They  exemplify,  then,  a  variation 
from  the  tempered  form  of  the  species  noticed  in  the  Fletch- 
erian  plays,  where  the  coalescence  of  tragicomedy  with  comedy 
brought  little  abatement  in  tragic  situations  and  possibilities 
but  much  in  tone  and  spirit.    Massinger  had  less  of  Fletcher's  N 
fondness  for  thrilling  incident  and  extravaganza  in  tragicom-  / 
edy,   with  the  result  that   some   of  his  plays   depend   almost  '\ 
wholly  on  a  sustained  seriousness  of  tone  and  purpose    for    \ 
their  genre  classification.     Ford's  contribution  to  tragicomedy 
consists  in  one  or  two  plays  of  the  same  kind :  notably  the 
"  Lover's   Melancholy,"   which   is   equally   free   from  violent 
action  and  danger  of  death,  yet  interweaves  a  treatment  of 
madness  with  the  romance  of  love,  and  presents  other  moods 
and  emotions  of  serious  drama.    And  something  similar  might /^ 
be  said  for  the  "  Lady's  Trial." 

In  Massinger's  three  tragicomedies  of  this  type,  love  con- 
tinues to  be  the  main  theme  and  intrigue  of  one  form  or 
another  the  moving  force.  Jealousy  and  anger  are  aroused, 
virtue  is  tempted,  a  lover  is  faithless,  but  the  action  never 
takes  a  really  tragic  turn,  and  imprisonment  is  about  the  most 


134 

serious  situation  that  arises.  The  double  trial  of  chastity  to 
which  a  husband  and  wife  are  subjected  in  the  "Picture"  to 
appease  the  whim  of  an  ambitious  queen  has  no  grave  conse- 
quences; and  the  anger  of  the  Great  Duke  of  Florence  for  the 
deceit  practised  upon  him  by  his  nephew  and  favorite  is  only 
momentarily  threatening.  The  "  Maid  of  Honor "  deserves 
some  special  notice.  While  equally  removed  from  tragic  inci- 
dent, it  is  more  heroic  and  martial  in  tone  than  the  others ;  the 
action  transporting  us  from  the  court  of  Sicily  to  the  seat  of 
war,  where  Bertoldo,  the  preferred  suitor  of  Camiola,  the  ]\Iaid 
of  Honor,  falls  into  captivity.  His  ransom,  refused  him  by 
his  brother  the  King,  is  furnished  by  the  noble  Camiola,  whose 
loyal  devotion  he  rewards  by  breaking  faith  with  her  and 
yielding  to  the  importunities  of  the  Duchess  Aurelio,  with 
whom  he  returns  home  to  be  wedded.  But  at  the  point  of 
marriage  the  wronged  heroine  appears,  discloses  the  faithless- 
ness of  her  fickle  lover,  and  so  eloquently  pleads  her  case  that 
the  Duchess  resigns  at  once  in  her  favor.  At  this  point,  how- 
ever, instead  of  Camiola  receiving  the  penitent  Bertoldo  back 
into  grace,  and  the  play  closing  in  the  conventional  manner  of 
tragicomedy,  it  is  announced  that  she  will  have  none  of  her 
lovers,  as  she  has  decided  to  marry  into  the  church,  and  Ber- 
toldo, by  her  command,  resumes  his  knighthood  of  Malta  with 
its  vow  of  celibacy.  Such  an  outcome,  bloodless  but  unsatis- 
factory, renders  the  play  more  or  less  unique  among  the  tragi- 

/  comedies  of  the  time.  Yet  it  well  illustrates  Massinger's  con- 
sistency of  purpose  in  handling  a  serious  motive  that  involves 
a  moral  question,  and  his  refusal  to  sacrifice  the  principles  of 

"^  his  art  to  the  exigencies  of  the  happy  ending. 

Some  attention  has  been  called  to  the  relatively  tempered 
tone  of  Massinger's  tragicomedies  from  the  Fletcherian  type ; 
their  clearer  differentiation  from  the  realm  of  tragedy  in 
motive  and  event ;  their  greater  regard  for  the  laws  of  cause 
and  effect;  and  their  less  dependence  on  constant  thrills  and 
sensational  theatrical  devices.  In  combining  various  threads 
of  story  in  a  single  action  and  in  originality  of  treatment, 
Massinger  was  as  ingenious  a  playwright  as  his  predecessor. 
But  he  had  not  the  latter's  mastery  of  technic  in  maintenance 


135 

of  suspense  and  artful  handling  of  the  denouement.  Often  the 
effect  of  his  tragicomic  drama  is  considerably  lessened  by  some 
device  or  other  that  foreshadows,  if  it  does  not  betray,  the 
character  of  the  outcome.  For  example,  we  know  from  the 
start  the  noble  blood  of  the  Bondman  and  the  identity  of  the 
disguised  Prince  of  Tarent,  so  that  in  each  case  the  execu- 
tion that  threatens  them  in  the  end  for  having  won  the  love  of 
ladies  of  rank  is  felt  to  be  already  averted  by  our  foreknowl- 
edge of  the  coming  disclosures  of  their  noble  birth.  Fletcher 
would  have  contrived  in  some  way  to  conceal  their  identity 
until  the  end,  and  thus  enhance  the  effect  of  the  denouement. 
Similarly,  the  magnanimity  of  Lorenzo  to  the  Princess  Matilda 
in  the  "  Bashful  Lover"  presages  the  happy  outcome  of  all  the 
difficulties;  the  rescue  which  saves  the  condemned  in  the 
"  Renegado  "  is  explained  beforehand,  so  that  the  announce- 
ment of  its  success  comes  as  no  surprise;  and  the  happy 
clue  regarding  the  fates  of  the  two  culprits  in  the  "  Great  Duke 
of  Florence "  is  already  in  the  possession  of  the  spectators 
before  the  final  scene  when  they  are  officially  pardoned  by  the 
magnanimous  Duke.  Only  occasionally  in  his  tragicomedies 
does  Massinger  effect  a  telling  surprise  that  recalls  his  master's 
skill.  In  the  "  Emperor  of  the  East,"  when  the  jealous 
monarch  has  learned  the  falsity  of  his  suspicions  and  is  bit- 
terly repenting  the  execution  of  his  kinsman,  the  man  in  ques- 
tion turns  up  alive  to  set  the  final  seal  of  happiness  on  the 
reconciliation.  And  the  sudden  and  unexpected  outcome  given 
the  "Maid  of  Honor"  must  have  startled  even  a  Caroline 
audience.  But  if  less  a  master  of  effective  tragicomedy  than\ 
his  early  contemporary,  Massinger's  more  careful  art  as  a 
dramatist  seems  to  have  led  him  to  a  clearer  idea  of  the  nature 
of  the  species  as  a  type  that  should  be  medial  between  tragedy 
and  comedy,  strictly  detached  from  the  horrors  and  deaths  of 
the  former,  and  lifted  above  the  humor  and  extravagance  of 
the  latter.  In  this  respect,  his  consistency  is  in  marked  con- 
trast to  the  carelessness  of  most  of  his  contemporaries.  </ 

From  Massinger  to  Shirley  the  transition  is  easy  and  natural. 
The  work  of  the  last  great  figure  among  the  later  Elizabethans 
is  a  direct  continuation  of  the  traditions  established  by  his 


136 

masterly  predecessors.  His  dramatic  career  beginning  ap- 
proximately with  the  death  of  Fletcher  in  1625  and  ending 
with  the  closing  of  the  theaters,  covers  a  period  of  the  very 
heyday  of  English  tragicomedy.  It  is  not  surprising,  then, 
that  Shirley's  best  and  most  characteristic  work,  like  that  of 
his  masters  and  contemporaries,  lies  in  this  type  of  drama. 
His  contribution  to  the  form,  representing  about  a  third  of  his 
whole  dramatic  output,  adds  little  that  is  new  to  that  of 
Fletcher  and  Massinger.  He  was  the  close  student  of  both, 
combining  the  delight  in  thrills  and  complicated  plots  of  the 
former  with  something  of  the  latter's  moral  tone  and  love  of 
poetic  justice.  Moreover,  tragicomedy  by  this  time,  tho 
always  a  variable  quantity  fluctuating  over  a  wide  area,  was 
becoming  more  or  less  conventionalized  in  materials  and  treat- 
ment, like  the  drama  in  general.  Love  in  one  form  or  another 
is  almost  invariably  the  chief  interest,  interwoven  with  war, 
usurpation  or  villainous  intrigue.  The  characters  are  the  re- 
curring court  types  of  the  romantic  dukedoms  that  border  the 
IMediterranean.  And  the  plot  is  an  ingenious  affair,  usually 
perfectly  artificial,  but  cleverly  manipulated  to  bring  about 
whatever  happy  ending  the  exigencies  of  the  situation  demand. 

Thus  it  is  that  little  distinguishes  Shirley's  tragicomedy  from 
what  has  gone  before.  A  court  is  always  prominent,  and  the 
villainous  intrigues,  amorous  entanglements  and  threatened 
usurpations  that  take  place  within  it  have  a  general  sameness 
to  others  of  the  kind.  In  the  "  Duke's  Mistress,"  "  Royal 
Master,"  "  Court  Secret "  and  "  Coronation,"  the  action  is 
almost  wholly  confined  within  the  gates  of  a  single  palace. 
The  "  Imposture  "  encompasses  both  the  court  of  ]\Iantua  and 
that  of  Ferrara.  A  sub-plot  supplies  the  usual  court  interest 
in  the  "  Gentlemen  of  Venice,"  while  the  main  action  centers 
on  a  repellent  theme  of  Italian  domestic  life.  And  court  in- 
trigue is  combined  with  war  and  conquest  in  the  "  Young 
Admiral"  and  the  "Doubtful  Heir." 

Unlike  Massinger,  Shirley  put  no  curb  on  the  bounds  of 
tragicomedy.  The  line  of  demarcation  separating  the  form 
from  his  tragedies  and  comedies  is  even  more  purely  arbitrary 
than    in    the    Fletcherian    plays.     Theoretical    distinctions    of 


137 

genres  played  little  part  in  his  dramatic  creed;  and  while  some 
of  his  plays  were  published  as  tragicomedies  during  his  life- 
time/^ never  in  prefatory  matter  or  elsewhere  does  he  himself 
betray  any  critical  interest  in  the  form.  Tragicomic  elements, 
accordingly,  continue  to  appear  in  his  comedies,  as  the  "  Exam- 
ple "  and  the  curious  medley  called  "  St.  Patrick  for  Ireland  "• 
illustrate;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  his  tragedies  occasionally 
show  the  popular  tendency  to  limit  the  catastrophe  to  the 
vicious  and  allow  the  good  to  live,  conforming,  in  a  way,  to  the 
second  kind  of  tragedy  chronicled  by  Aristotle  as  the  most 
appealing  to  popular  taste.  To  class  the  "  Duke's  Mistress  " 
among  tragicomedies  and  the  "  Politician  "  among  tragedies, 
may  seem  to  be  drawing  an  artificial  distinction.  Yet  in  the 
last  named,  death  claims  an  innocent,  victim  as  well  as  the 
guilty,  and  the  happy  union  of  the  hero  and  heroine  at  the 
end  seems  subordinated  to  the  tragic  downfall  of  evil.  The 
"  Duke's  Mistress,"  on  the  contrary,  allots  death  only  to  the 
two  evil  spirits  of  the  piece,  and  offers  a  conventional  tragi- 
comic character  cast  and  theme.  The  lustful  monarch,  ill- 
used  queen,  villainous  favorite,  intriguing  courtier,  honest 
soldier,  and  faithful  lovers  are  all  there ;  while  the  plot  paral- 
lels that  of  Dekker's  "  Match  Me  in  London,"  and  is  reminis- 
cent of  a  multitude  of  other  tragicomedies.  The  double  end- 
ing of  the  rewards  for  the  virtuous  and  punishment  of  the 
wicked  is  again  strikingly  exemplified  in  the  "  General,"  if, 
indeed,  the  manuscript  production  of  that  title,  with  its  nonde- 
script setting  and  rimed  verse,  is  correctly  attributed  to  Shir- 
ley.^^  An  action  of  war  and  lust  and  usurpation,  mingled  with 
romance,  seems  to  have  culminated  in  a  series  of  bloody  trage- 
dies; but  surprises  are  in  store,  and  when  we  have  recovered 
from  the  final  shocks,  we  discern  that  the  play  is  really  a  tragi- 
comedy :  that  the  wicked  usurper  and  his  intriguing  son  alone 
have  not  been  recalled  to  life,  while  the  rightful  monarch  has 

'*  The  following  appeared  as  tragicomedies:  Doubtful  Heir  (1652),  Im- 
posture (1652),  Court  Secret  (1653),  ^nd  the  Gentleman  of  Venice  (1655). 

^^  The  Generall:  A  Tragi-Comedy.  Reprinted  from  MS.  by  Halliwell, 
A  Brief  Description  of  the  Ancient  &  Modern  Manuscripts  .  .  .  Plymouth 
Library,  1853.  See  Fleay,  II,  244,  340;  Dyce  ed.  of  Shirley,  VI,  495;  also 
Gosse,  Mermaid  ed.  of  Shirley,  p.  xxvii,  note. 


138 

been  restored,  the  heroine  united  to  the  suitor  of  her  choice, 
and  the  vaHant  General — tho  rejected  as  a  lover — compen- 
sated with  a  high  commission  and  sent  off  to  new  conquests. 

/  In  quick  changes  of  fortune  and  extravagant  theatrical 
effects,  Shirley's  tragicomedies  are  quite  comparable  to  those 

Xof  his  master  Fletcher.  No  better  example  of  the  extreme  use 
of  reverse  and  surprise  is  afforded  than  by  the  "  Doubtful 
Heir."  The  hero  is  first  condemned  to  die  and  next  exalted 
to  the  kingship  with  a  frequency  that  takes  our  breath  away. 
Three  several  times  do  his  fortunes  undergo  this  double 
change  before  his  grasp  on  the  throne  is  finally  secure  and  the 
happy  ending  sealed  with  a  double  marriage.  In  the  "  Young 
Admiral  "  we  witness  a  moral  conflict  that  recalls  IMassinger. 
Vittorio,  taken  captive  with  his  betrothed  by  the  Sicilians,  is 
confronted  with  the  problem  of  choosing  between  treason  and 
the  death  of  his  beloved.  In  great  distress  he  resolves  on 
treason,  only  to  learn  from  the  other  side  that  the  first  assault 
against  his  native  city  means  the  death  of  his  father.  In  this 
play  and  in  others  the  dangers  are  removed  and  happy  ending 
perfected  with  an  astonishing  ingenuity.  A  second  love 
theme,  in  which  the  Princess  of  Sicily  is  the  heroine,  so  works 
that  the  Young  Admiral  is  freed  from  his  dilemmas,  and  out 
of  jealousy,  suspicion  and  threatened  war  come  reconciliation, 
the  union  of  lovers  and  peace. 

/■  Characteristic  of  Shirley's  tragicomedies  are  the  elaborate 
complications  of  the  plot,  usually  carried  to  the  limits  of  im- 

\  probability.  Confusion  of  identity,  disguise,  and  any  device 
calculated  to  complicate  matters,  are  cultivated  to  the  full. 
Identity  is  intentionally  misrepresented  in  the  "  Imposture," 
and  an  intriguer's  mistress  is  palmed  off  as  a  princess.  In 
the  "  Court  Secret "  the  tangled  love  chain,  in  which  three 
pairs  of  brothers  and  sisters  love  awry  thru  no  fault  of  theirs, 
is  worthy  of  the  most  complicated  Arcadian  pastoral.  And 
so  cleverly  contrived  is  the  plot  that  on  the  disclosure  of  the 
court  secret,  which  establishes  the  true  relations  among  the 
lovers  and  averts  the  dangers,  the  elaborate  love  tangle 
straightens  out  of  its  own  accord.  The  interchange  of  child- 
ren in  infancy,  which  underlies  the  complication  of  this  play, 


139 

is  also  employed  in  the  sub-plot  of  the  "  Gentleman  of 
Venice."  A  disclosure  of  birth  gains  the  Doubtful  Heir  his 
title  to  the  throne ;  and  the  involved  plot  of  the  "  Coronation  " 
turns  on  the  discovery  of  the  rightful  identity  of  two  princes, 
the  supposed  lost  brothers  of  the  Queen.  Such  are  some  of 
the  stock  situations  employed  repeatedly  by  Shirley  to  perfect 
tragicomic  plots  that  will  unravel  easily  when  the  proper  state 
of  threatening  complications  has  been  reached.  They  show  \ 
his  clever  craftmanship  as  well  as  the  conventionalized  state  of 
the  drama,  now  no  longer  seeking  novelty  in  theme  and  treat- 
ment but  content  to  follow  as  fashion  had  pointed  the  way./ 

With  Shirley  we  reach  the  last  important  link  in  the  direct 
development  of  romantic  tragicomedy  that  starts  with  the 
innovation  of  Beaumont  and  Fletcher  and  temporarily  ceases 
with  the  closing  of  the  theaters  in  1642.  The  numerous  tragi- 
comedies written  by  minor  playwrights  during  the  latter  years 
of  this  period  only  further  emphasize  the  fairly  well-defined 
outlines  of  the  genre  in  the  reign  of  Charles  I  and  its  pre- 
eminence on  the  popular  stage.  Davenant,  Carlell,  Cartwright 
and  Thomas  Killigrew,  all  of  whom  cultivated  the  form  almost 
exclusively,  stand  forth  as  the  chief  contributors  among  the 
lesser  lights,  and  individual  pieces  scattered  among  a  host  of 
others  help  to  swell  the  total  output  of  Caroline  tragicomedy. 
Numerically,  these  plays  present  quite  a  formidable  array;  but 
the  large  majority  follow  the  way  pointed  by  precedent  and 
move  within  the  relatively  restricted  limits  of  settled  conven- 
tion. 

Similarities  in  motive,  character  and  situation  abound, 
whether  the  scene  is  the  usual  Italian  principality,  a  remote 
Eastern  court,  or  transferred  to  ancient  Britain  or  Scandi- 
navia, or  the  plot  revamped  from  Spanish  novel,  French  ro- 
mance or  ancient  history.  Only  along  the  line  of  theatrical 
effectiveness  is  there  no  sign  of  stagnation.  The  dramaturgy 
of  tragicomedy  had  now  become  an  art  on  which  each  writer 
lavished  his  best  endeavor  to  the  neglect  of  all  else.  The  most 
absurd  and  insignificant  play  is  not  without  technical  dexterity ; 
and  many  outdo  Fletcher's  tragicomedies  in  artfully  concealed 
denouement,  startling  discoveries,  and  succession  of  final  sur- 
prises. 


140 

y^  Noticeable  in  all  is  the  influence  of  the  social  and  literary 
forces  dominant  at  the  court  of  Charles  I.  Fashionable  Eng- 
lish society  was  aping  the  cults  and  aflPectations  of  French  pre- 
ciosity;  and  the  vogue  of  the  interminable  French  romance  had 
set  in  across  the  channel,  with  its  heroic  ideals,  artificial  senti- 
ment, and  impossible  heroes  and  heroines.  Tragicomedy  read- 
ily lent  itself  to  current  fashions,  particularly  in  the  hands  of 
writers  closely  identified  with  the  court.  In  the  "  Platonic 
Lovers,"  a  tragicomedy  of  little  action  and  much  disputation, 
Davenant  gave  dramatic  treatment  to  the  fashionable  cult  of 
court  circles;  while  love  casuistry  and  absurd  disquisitions 
over  honor  and  friendship  reappear  constantly  in  the  plays  of 

\others.  The  popular  fondness  for  romance  long  drawn  out 
seems  to  have  induced  Carlell  to  extend  two  of  his  tragicome- 
dies, "  Arviragus  and  Philicia  "  and  the  "  Passionate  Lovers," 
over  two  parts — a  custom  later  employed  by  the  equally  ver- 
bose Killigrew.  Cough's  "  Strange  Discovery "  dramatizes 
the  rambling  story  of  "  Theagenes  and  Clariclea  "  of  Helio- 
dorus,  which  Hardy  in  France  had  earlier  extended  over  eight 
tragicomedies  of  five  acts  each.  And  the  popularity  of  the 
heroic  fiction  of  the  day  is  easily  the  inspiration  for  the  large 
majority  of  these  less  known  plays.  Love  and  honor  and 
friendship  are  always  uppermost;  heroes  and  heroines  display 
the  most  extravagant  and  unnatural  nobility  of  sentiment ; 
rival  suitors  contend  in  magnanimity  and  generosity ;  love  is 
sacrificed  for  friendship ;  constancy  is  put  to  strange  tests ;  and 
no  limit  is  set  to  marvelous  adventure  and  astounding  de- 
nouement. 

Some  few,  indeed,  do  not  follow  the  formula  of  heroic 
romance  but  lean  rather  to  realism.  Davenant's  "  Just 
Italian,"  Davenport's  "  City  Night-Cap,"  and  the  "  Twins  "  of 
William  Rider,  belong  with  Shirley's  "  Gentleman  of  \^enice  " 
as  tragicomedies  of  Italian  domestic  life,  and  vie  with  one 
another  in  the  repellency  of  their  themes.  And  the  "  Dis- 
tresses "  of  Davenant  is  of  yet  different  cast,  recalling  Span- 
ish drama  in  its  rapid  action,  frequent  duels,  adventures  and 
complications.  A  few  others  are  anomalies  that  will  call  for 
mention  later ;  but  the  prevailing  type  is  as  directly  the  descen- 


141 

dent  of  Beaumont  and  Fletcher  romance  as  it  is  the  forebear 
of  the  heroic  play  of  the  Restoration. 

Both  Davenant  and  Killigrew  wrote  tragicomedies  after  the 
closing  of  the  theaters  as  well  as  before,  their  work  thus  form- 
ing an  interesting  link  between  the  old  and  the  new.  The 
precursory  heroic  ideal  of  Restoration  drama  is  shown  to 
best  advantage  perhaps  in  the  former's  three  tragicomedies  of 
the  "  Siege,"  "  Fair  Favorite  "  and  "  Love  and  Honor."  In 
the  first  named,  a  hero  who  has  committed  treason  for  love 
is  goaded  by  the  scorn  of  his  noble  mistress  to  fight  with  such 
blind  fury  in  expiation  of  his  crime  that  besieged  Pisa  falls, 
and  he  is  restored  to  honor  and  rewarded  with  his  lady's  hand. 
In  the  "  Fair  Favorite  "  the  heroic  ideal  works  a  novel  varia- 
tion on  the  well-worn  tragicomic  theme  of  the  lustful  tyrant 
and  virtuous  maiden.  The  king's  base  passion  is  exalted  to  a 
high  and  ideal  love;  and  the  neglected  queen,  instead  of  the 
imperious  and  bitterly  resentful  woman,  is  a  meek  and  humble 
Grissel,  bent  on  resigning  in  favor  of  her  fair  rival.  But 
extreme  nobility  and  lofty  sentiment,  together  with  remark- 
able tragicomic  technic,  are  best  exemplified  in  Davenant's 
early  masterpiece,  which  well  merited  the  praise  of  Richard 
Flecknoe : 

In  's  Love  and  Honor  you  might  see 
The  height  of  tragecomedy."" 

As  often,  the  action  follows  in  the  wake  of  war.  The 
Duke  of  Savoy  has  humbled  the  Duke  of  Milan,  and  among 
the  captives  is  the  latter's  daughter  Evandra,  who  is  decreed 
to  die  in  retaliation  for  the  supposed  slaying  of  the  Duke  of 
Savoy's  brother  by  the  enemy.  Her  three  lovers  combine  to 
conceal  her  from  the  angry  vengeance  of  the  Duke,  and  vie 
with  one  another  in  chivalric  devotion  and  determination  to 
die  in  her  stead.  But  she  is  not  to  be  outdone  in  magnanimity. 
By  a  ruse  she  contrives  to  escape  their  vigilance  and  gives  her- 
self up  to  execution,  only  to  find  that  her  faithful  companion 
Melora  is  claiming  her  identity.  The  result  is  that  both  ladies 
are  condemned  to  die.     At  the  climax,  which  is  remarkable 

""  Sir  William  D'Avenant's  Voyage  to  the  other  World,  with  his  Ad- 
ventures in  the  Poet's  Elisimn   (1668). 


142 

even  for  tragicomedy,  amid  the  succession  of  magnanimous 
offers  and  surprising  discoveries,  tragic  fate  slips  from  one 
victim  to  another  until  by  the  final  disclosure  that  the  Duke's 
brother  still  lives  it  is  dissipated  entirely,  and  everyone  ap- 
peased in  the  reconciliation. 

Rivalry  in  generosity  again  comes  to  the  fore  in  William 
Habington's  "  Queen  of  Aragon,"  a  tragicomedy  of  like  heroic 
tone,  with  a  background  of  war  and  a  foreground  of  love  and 
honor.  Extreme  devotion  which  remains  unaltered  under  the 
most  severe  tests  is  shown  in  the  anonymous  "  Queen,  or  Ex- 
cellency of  Her  Sex  "-^  and  Glapthorne's  "  Lady's  Privilege." 
In  the  latter,  the  hero  is  commanded  by  his  mistress  not  only 
to  renounce  his  own  suit  but  to  secure  her  the  love  of  his 
friend,  all  of  which  he  faithfully  performs.  A  duel  of  honor 
occurs ;  love  is  sacrificed  for  friendship  by  the  devoted  com- 
rade ;  the  usual  execution  is  stayed ;  and  the  denouement  brings 
a  series  of  surprises,  among  them  the  disclosure  by  the  now 
humbled  heroine  that  her  heartless  conduct  has  all  been  a  ruse 
to  test  her  lover's  devotion.--  In  Carlell's  four  tragicomedies 
the  constancy  of  love  and  the  ideality  of  friendship  are  carried 
to  the  limits  of  heroic  romance,  strange  adventure  abounds, 
and  tragicomic  devices  are  multiplied  in  the  elaborately  planned 
denouements.  In  the  "  Fool  Would  be  a  Favorite,"  which  like 
Davenport's  "  City  Night-Cap  "  takes  its  name  from  the  comic 
sub-plot,  a  novel  effect  is  secured  by  the  supposedly  slain  hero 
personating  his  own  ghost — a  device  resorted  to  by  the  heroine 
in  Berkeley's  "  Lost  Lady."  The  "  Deserving  Favorite,"-^ 
Carlell's  best  tragicomedy,  offers  a  series  of  paragons  of  virtue 
— heroes  afflicted  with  the  most  sensitive  honor  and  heroines 
no  less  idealized — and  in  contrast  an  "  honest  Jacomo,"  more 
confessedly  a  villain  than  Richard  III  and  blacker  than 
lago.  Forest  scenes  and  a  sentimental  heroine  in  page  attire 
recall   "  Philaster " ;   but   in   general   the   play   oft'ers   nothing 

-'  Reprinted  by  Bang,  MateriaUcn  aur  Kunde  des  altcrcn  Englischen 
Dramas  (1906),  vol.  13.  The  play  has  been  assigned  to  Ford,  cp.  S.  P. 
Sherman  in  Mod.  Lang.  Notes  (1908),  XXIII,  245. 

~  Glapthorne  is  also  the  author  of  a  non-extant  Noble  Tryal  (S.  R.  1660), 
which  is  recorded  as  a  tragicomedy. 

''Edited  with  introduction  by  C.  H.  Gray  (Dissertation,  Chicago),   1905. 


143 

distinctive  over  other  villain  tragicomedies.  The  action  cul- 
minates in  the  usual  scene  of  impending  execution,  and  the 
disclosures  wliich  convert  the  "  Scoene  of  blood  into  a  Scoene 
of  joy  "  are  of  long-standing  familiarity.  The  ax  is  stayed  by 
the  emergence  from  disguise  of  the  character  whose  supposed 
death  is  about  to  be  expiated.  Other  disclosures  and  lengthy 
explanations  reveal  that  the  lovers  are  brother  and  sister, 
which  of  course  solves  a  love  difficulty;  a  hermit  turns  out  to 
be  their  banished  father  in  disguise ;  and  a  wicked  uncle  is  dis- 
covered in  the  villain.  To  these  should  be  added  the  two  ex- 
tant plays  of  Arthur  Wilson,  the  "  Swisser  "-^  and  the  "  In- 
constant Lady,"^^  both  tragicomedies  of  the  approved  patterns, 
offering  a  full  quota  of  disguises,  sleeping-potion  poisons, 
thwarted  intrigue,  penitent  villains,  discoveries  of  identity, 
and  like  measures  devised  to  effect  telling  tragicomic  conclu- 
sions. Playwrights  had  learned  the  theatrical  value  of  saving 
every  surprise  for  the  denouement;  and  in  this  respect,  the 
tragicomedies  of  minor  writers  often  far  surpass  those  of 
their  masters. 

The  contribution  of  Cartwright  and  Killigrew  to  tragicom- 
edy also  follows  the  conventionalized  mould  of  heroic  romance. 
Both  men  were  staunch  royalists,  the  former  a  scholar  and  the 
latter  a  court  wit,  and  both  were  writers  of  distinction  in 
their  own  day.  Cartwright  was  numbered  among  the  sons  of 
Ben;  he  was  connected  all  his  life  with  Oxford,  where  his 
most  celebrated  tragicomedy,  the  "  Royal  Slave,"  was  presented 
with  much  pomp  before  the  King  and  Queen  in  August,  1636. 
He  evidently  wrote  but  four  plays,  three  of  which  are  tragi- 
comedies,^® and  to  judge  from  the  mass  of  fulsome  panegyric 
poems  that  accompany  the  posthumous  edition  of  165 1,  they 
were  immensely  popular  with  his  literary  contemporaries.  In 
addition  to  the  "  Royal  Slave,"  the  tragicomedies  are  the 
"  Lady  Errant "  and  the  "  Siege ;  or  Love's  Convert,"  all  of 

^  Edited  from   MS.  by  Albert   Feuillerat,   Paris,    1904. 
^Printed  from  MS.  by  P.  Bliss,  Oxford,  1814. 

-^  Cartwright's  dramatic  preference  is  noticed  in  a  commendatory  poem 
by  a  certain  "  I.  B." : 

No  bloody  drops  did  from  thy  Pencill  fall. 
Thy  blackest  Scean's  but  Tragi-comicall. 


144 

which  have  a  general  sameness  in  character  and  Httle  beside 
the  author's  fantastic  style  to  distinguish  them  from  other 
tragicomic  treatments  of  romantic  themes.  Similarly,  three  of 
the  four  plays  of  Killigrew  that  fall  within  this  period  are 
tragicomedies,  "  The  Prisoners,"  "  Claricilla  "  and  the  "  Prin- 
cess," all  in  prose,  and  the  last  two  written  during  a  tour  of 
the  author  abroad.  Their  distinctive  trait  is  melodramatic 
excess.  In  violent  action,  strained  sentiment  and  impossible 
adventure,  they  easily  outdo  anything  attempted  by  others,  con- 
cealing poverty  in  all  else  by  wild  extravagance.  Bloodshed 
and  fighting  suffuse  the  action ;  the  villains  usually  meet  death ; 
heroes  repeatedly  suffer  wounds  that  heal  readily ;  and  the 
stage  may  be  strewn  with  the  corpses  of  soldiers  and  bravos. 
In  comparison,  the  tragicomedies  of  the  scholarly  Cartwright 
are  relatively  subdued,  relying  more  on  rhetorical  disquisition 
and  spectacular  effects,  and  less  on  tumultuous  action  and 
strange  adventure.  But  the  dift'erences  are  in  degree  and  not 
in  kind,  for  the  inspiration  of  both  writers  is  the  same — the 
heroic  fiction  of  the  Caroline  era. 

To  conclude  the  account  of  later  Elizabethan  tragicomedy, 
it  remains  to  mention  briefly  certain  minor  and  anomalous 
forms  of  the  species  that  fall  rather  without  our  main  dis- 
cussion. In  academic  circles  tragicomedy  in  both  vernacular 
and  Latin  was  cultivated  from  time  to  time.  On  the  occasion 
of  the  royal  visit  to  Oxford  in  1636,  when  Cartwright's  "  Royal 
Slave"  was  first  presented,  the  students  of  Christ  Church  also 
performed  for  the  King's  entertainment  the  "  Floating  Island," 
by  William  Strode,  Public  Orator  at  Oxford,  another  university 
tragicomedy  but  utterly  dift'erent  from  its  companion  piece.-" 
The  "  Floating  Island  "  is  an  allegorical  masque,  the  characters 
of  which  are  all  abstractions,  and  the  action  ominously  sym- 
bolic of  the  strained  political  state  of  affairs  of  Charles'  king- 
dom. That  the  piece  appeared  under  the  genre  name  is  doubt- 
less due  to  the  fact  that  the  climax  and  (/^woM^m^»f  of  the  slow- 
moving  allegory  are  obviously  adapted  from  current  tragi- 
comedy. The  ''Amorous  War"  is  likewise  the  work  of  an 
Oxford  scribe,  Jasper  IMaync,  and  recalls  the  artificial  struc- 

^  Recently  reprinted  by  B.  Dobell,  Poetical  Works  of  Strode,  1907. 


145 

ture  and  disquisitional  style  of  Cartwright's  "  Lady  Errant." 
Two  of  the  Latin  plays  of  William  Drury,  a  Jesuit  Professor 
of  Rhetoric  at  Douay,  also  bear  the  title  name.  "  Alvredus 
sive  Alfredus  "  is  a  "  Tragico-Comoedia "  dealing  with  King 
Alfred's  deliverance  of  England  from  the  Danes,  and,  accord- 
ing to  the  title,  was  acted  three  times  by  the  youth  of  the 
English  college  at  Douay  in  1619;  and  the  first  part  of  a 
"  Reparatus  sive  Depositum,  Tragico-Comoedia "  followed  in 
1628.-®  At  least  two  other  academic  plays  of  this  period  in- 
accessible in  manuscript  are  chronicled  as  tragicomedies :  the 
Latin  "  Pseudomagia  "-''  by  William  Mewe  of  Cambridge,  and 
the  "  Warde,"^*^  an  Oxford  production  in  vernacular  by 
Thomas  Neale,  dated  September  16,  1637.^^ 

Certain  of  the  Caroline  pastorals  were  also  denominated 
tragicomedies  in  their  own  day,  following  the  precedent  es- 
tablished in  England  by  Daniel  and  Fletcher.  The  "  Careless 
Shepherdess "  of  Thomas  Gofife,  the  Oxford  preacher,  and 
Joseph  Rutter's  "  Shepherds'  Holiday  " — both  of  which  were 
represented  at  Whitehall — are  elaborate  Arcadian  tragicom- 
edies, which  rehabilitate  conventional  materials  and  carry  on 
the  traditions  of  English  pastoralism  that  descend  from 
Guarini.  And  a  short  pastoral  skit  by  Joseph  Tatham,  called 
"  Love  Crowns  the  End,"  acted  "  by  the  scholles  of  Bingham  " 
in  Notingham,  1632,  appeared  in  the  second  edition  of  1657  as 
a  "  Tragi-Comedy."  Among  unacted  plays  of  the  period  is 
the  "  Adrasta,"  a  "  Tragi-comedie  "  by  John  Jones  of  purely 
conventional  design ;  and  the  "  Governour  "  of  Sir  Cornelius 
Formido,  entered  in  the  Court  Revels  as  presented  at  St. 
James,  February  16,  1636,  was  evidently  never  printed.  An 
interesting  indication  of  the  popularity  of  tragicomedy  is 
afforded  by  the  stage  history  of  Suckling's  "  Aglaura,"  which 
first  appeared  as  a  conventional  tragedy  at  Christmas  time  1636, 

^  See  H.  R.  Duthilloeul,  Bibl.  Doiiaisienne  (1842),  p.  63. 

^  Shakspere  Jahrbuch,   XXXIV,   317. 

^''  MS.  Razvl.  Poet,  79,  Bodleian  Library. 

^^  It  will  be  remembered  that  the  old   Oxford  Bellum  Grammaticale  ap- 
peared  in   print   for   the   first   time    in    1635,    and   as   a    Tragico-Comcedia. 
Above,  p.  88. 
11 


iiik 


and  the  following  Easter  was  accommodated  with  a  new  fifth 
act,  in  which  the  wholesale  deaths  are  all  averted  and  the  play 
transformed  into  a  tragicomedy — a  concession,  the  courtly 
author  explains,  to  the  ladies,  "  whom  to  see  a  lover  die,  it 
grieves."  Of  no  integral  relation  to  the  species  is  Sir  Aston 
Cokayne's  "  Trappolin  Creduto  Principe,"  which,  tho  styled 
an  "  Italian  Trage-Comedy,"  founded,  as  the  author  admits, 
on  a  piece  he  had  seen  in  Venice,  is  really  a  pure  farce  and 
hardly  more  than  a  translation  of  the  Italian  play  of  the  same 
name.^-  To  conclude  the  list  of  extant  irregular  productions 
associated  with  Caroline  tragicomedy  by  documentary  evi- 
dence, the  "  Langartha  "^^  of  Henry  Burnell,  acted  at  Dublin 
in  1639,  may  be  mentioned;  a  play  chiefly  interesting  here  for 
the  critical  comment  it  called  from  the  author,  in  reply  to 
detractors,  that  "  a  Tragie-Comedy  sho'd  neither  end  Comically 
or  Tragically,  but  betwixt  both,"  one  of  the  very  few  ex- 
preg^ions  of  the  sort  that  the  period  affords. 

The  almost  total  absence  of  critical  notice  of  tragicomedy 
during  a  period  when  it  was  the  prevailing  dramatic  type  is 
not  so  surprising  when  we  consider  that  the  drama  of  these 
years  was  practically  without  a  guiding  criticism.  After  Ben 
Jonson,  dramatic  theory  had  no  English  expositor  until  the 
Restoration ;  and  so  far  as  tragicomedy  is  concerned,  Sidney 
was  the  last  to  issue  a  critical  pronunciamento.  Fletcher,  in- 
deed, early  in  his  career  formulated  a  definition  for  the  form 
from  Guarini;  but  none  of  his  imitators  ever  manifested  a 
similar  interest  in  critical  theory.  Thruout  the  period  there 
appears  to  have  been  no  echo  in  England  of  the  discussion 
that  followed  in  the  wake  of  the  Spanish  national  drama,  or 
of  that  in  France  growing  out  of  the  appearance  of  Corneille's 
"Cid"  as  a  tragicomedy,  altho  the  play  itself  was  straightway 
translated  and  acted  across  the  channel.^*     In  England  the 

^- See  T.  Wilkes,  A  General  Viezv  of  the  Stage  (1759),  p.  61. 

^Reprinted  in  Baldwyn,  Old  English  Drama  (1824).  For  stage  historj', 
see  History  of  Dublin  (1854),  I,  41. 

'^  The  Cid,  A  Tragi  comedy,  out  of  French  made  English,  Joseph  Rutter, 
first  part,  1637;  second  part,  1640.  It  seems  also  that  tragicomedies 
figured  among  contemporary  French  plays  presented  in  England  about 
this  time  by  French  players.  See  W.  J.  Lawrence,  Early  French  Players 
in  England,  Anglia  (1909),  XXXII,  69. 


147 

form  developed  without  the  aid  or  hindrance  of  critical  dicta, 
and  throve  in  response  to  an  ever  increasing  demand  for  the 
thrills,  melodramatic  extravagance  and  happy  endings  that  it 
only  could  supply,  until  by  the  closing  of  the  theaters  romantic 
tragicomedy  had  well  nigh  elbowed  other  forms  off  the  stage. 

Due  to  this  lack  of  critical  interest  and  to  the  little  attention 
paid  distinctions  of  dramatic  kinds,  only  rarely  do  playwrights 
indicate  in  preface  or  prolog  that  the  play  in  hand  is  a  tragi- 
comedy. Our  ideas,  therefore,  of  the  extent  to  which  the 
genre  name  was  in  current  use  must  be  based  on  data  furnished 
by  title  pages  and  other  kindred  sources.  Of  the  approximate 
hundred  surviving  plays  that  make  up  the  sum  of  English 
tragicomedy  from  1610  to  1642,  almost  two  thirds  oft'er  docu- 
mentary evidence  of  some  sort  of  their  contemporary  recogni- 
tion as  tragicomedies.  And  with  few  exceptions,  the  others, 
if  they  appeared  in  quarto,^^  were  left  without  any  classifica- 
tion, as  indicative  of  a  neutral  type.  These  facts  demonstrate 
pretty  clearly  the  general  consistency  in  the  current  conception 
of  tragicomedy,  and  its  accord  with  the  artificial  bounds  es- 
tablished for  the  form  in  the  preceding  pages.  Many  were 
not  published  at  all  until  the  period  of  the  Commonwealth ; 
and  only  during  the  dozen  years  preceding  the  closing  of  the 
theaters  did  tragicomedies  begin  to  be  generally  indicated  on  the 
title  pages  of  printed  quartos.  At  this  time  the  form  was  becom- 
ing more  and  more  conventionalized  and  more  definitely  differ- 
entiated from  tragedy  and  comedy — as  evidenced  most  clearly 
in  minor  writers — with  the  natural  result  of  the  more  general 
application  of  the  title  name.  And  altho  occasional  incon-  s 
sistencies  still  appear  at  a  late  date,^^  the  closing  years  of  the  fy/ 
period  witness  practical  unanimity  in  the  recognition  of  tragi- 
comedy by  name  as  well  as  the  definite  severance  of  the  type 
from  other  forms  of  drama. 

The  extent  to  which   contemporary   foreign   example   may 

^'  No  pre-Restoration  folios  included  tragicomedies   in   their  divisions. 

'"  For  example,  the  three  plays  of  Richard  Brome,  Love-sick  Court, 
Queens'  Exchange,  and  Queen  and  Concubine,  which  follow  the  mould  of 
contemporary  tragicomedy,  tho  not  detached  from  the  author's  exuberant 
comic  vein,  came  from  the  press  as  "  Comedies,"  1657-59. 


148 

have  directly  influenced  English  tragicomedy  of  this  period 
is  probably  negligible.  Pastoral  tragicomedy,  indeed,  was  an 
Italian  importation,  and  its  introduction  into  England  doubt- 
less of  considerable  historical  importance  to  our  subject;  but 
the  type  itself  enjoyed  only  a  sporadic  existence,  all  it  had  to 
offer  being  quickly  assimilated  by  its  more  vigorous  sister 
growth.  And  both  the  Spanish  "  Celestina  "^'  and  the  "  Cid  " 
are  among  translations  of  the  time.  But  a  more  intrinsic 
dependence  on  continental  precedent  is  hard  to  establish ;  altho 
French  tragicomedy  of  the  romantic  type  which  conquered  the 
Parisian  stage  in  the  time  of  Hardy  had  hardly  abated  in 
popularity  by  1642,  and  the  Cloak  and  Sword  drama  of  Lope 
and  Calderon  was  an  even  more  vigorous  growth  on  the 
Spanish  peninsula.  True,  much  of  the  spirit  of  the  Spanish 
national  drama  is  embodied  in  the  work  of  Fletcher  and 
others;  and  the  same  pseudo-romance  of  French  tragicomedy 
is  the  underlying  inspiration  for  many  Caroline  dramatists. 
But  English  tragicomedies,  while  preserving  many  traits  of 
foreign  extraction,  are  rarely  traceable  to  continental  originals. 
Playwrights,  when  they  did  not  invent  their  tragicomic  plots 
entirely,  turned  to  fiction  rather  than  drama  for  material  and 
found  in  the  romantic  stories  of  Spain,  Italy,  France  and 
Greece  an  inexhaustible  variety  of  sources  from  which  to 
dress  anew  their  favorite  motives  and  situations. 

Later  Elizabethan  tragicomedy,  then,  is  to  be  thought  of  as 
an  offspring  of  the  dranie  litre,  a  spontaneous  and  natural 
evolution,  and  as  much  a  national  product,  knowing  no  guid- 
ing criticism  but  popular  taste,  as  its  sister  growths  in  France 
and  Spain.  Its  direct  development  from  the  innovation  of 
Beaumont  and  Fletcher,  the  revivers  of  the  romantic  tradition 
in  the  English  drama,  to  Davcnant  and  Killigrew,  the  precur- 
sors of  Restoration  drama,  is  along  one  pretty  well-defined 
highway,  whose  characteristics,  constant  and  variable,  have 
been  set  forth  above.  The  bypaths  noted  from  time  to  time, 
which  include  pastorals,  domestic  and  realistic  dramas,  aca- 

'^  TIic  Spauisli  Bawd  represented  in  Celestina  Or,  the  Tragicke-Comedy 
of  Calisto  and  Melibea,  translated  by  James  Mabbe  (Don  Diego  Puede-ser), 
1631. 


l/ 


149 

demic  plays,  and  various  anomalies,  are  only  to  be  expected 
from  a  genre  of  such  uncertain  dimensions  and  composite 
ancestry.  The  main  course  follows  the  leading  tradition  of 
its  own  past — the  romantic_jglaLy_of  serious  interest  and  happy 
ending — and  leaves  an  ever  widening  track  from  its  first  real 
inception  at  the  beginning  of  the'  century  to  its  temporary 
cessation  in  1642. 


CHAPTER  VI 
The  Decline  of  Tragicomedy  (1642  to  1700) 

The  interregnum  in  dramatic  activity  caused  by  the  repres- 
sion of  the  theaters  during  the  civil  war  and  Commonwealth 
is  not  to  be  regarded  as  a  period  totally  detached  from  interest 
in  the  drama.  Altho  acting  was  under  the  ban  and  the  chief 
playwrights  were  exiles  in  Europe,  the  drama  was  far  from 
dead,  as  is  evidenced  by  continued  dramatic  composition,  the 
printing  of  old  plays,  private  performances,  the  resort  to 
puppet-shows  or  drolls,  and  the  readiness  of  the  regular  drama 
/'to  break  forth  on  the  slightest  opportunity.  In  such  ways  the 
theatrical  traditions  of  the  past  were  kept  alive  in  spite  of 
hostile  legislation,  so  that  the  Restoration  in  1660  and  the 
granting  of  the  first  patents  for  licensing  theatrical  companies 
found  the  old  drama  little  impaired  in  vitality^  and  still  the 
most  potent  influence  in  shaping  the  new  drama  to  the  changed 
'\ conditions  and  society  of  the  England  of  Charles  II. 

Tragicomedy  during  this  interval  of  closed  theaters  found 
a  vent  for  its  interrupted  popularity  chiefly  in  publication. 
Denied  expression  on  the  stage,  it  met  with  a  ready  welcome 
from  the  reading  public.  During  the  suppression  of  the  thea- 
ters no  less  than  forty  tragicomedies  of  the  earlier  period 
appeared  in  print  for  the  first  time,  including  almost  all  the 
Fletcherian  group — which  first  saw  the  light  in  the  1647  folio 
— and  many  by  Massinger,  Shirley,  Cartwright,  Carlell,  and  a 
host  of  others.  Moreover,  plays  of  the  type  still  continued  to 
be  produced  by  banished  court  wits  and  other  royalist  adher- 
ents who  wrote  for  private  circulation  or  surreptitious  per- 
formance. Apparently  tragicomedies  even  figured  in  the  abor- 
tive attempts  to  reopen  the  theaters  during  the  Commonwealth. 
On  February  5,  1648,  John  Evelyn  witnessed  "  a  tragie-comedy 
acted  in  the  Cockpit,  after  there  had  ben  none  of  these  diver- 

150 


151 

sions  for  many  years  during  the  warr."^  And  one  of  the  later 
infractions  of  the  act  of  suppression  has  a  curious  interest  here.  • 
It  seems  that  on  the  occasion  of  a  performance  by  vagrant 
players  in  1653  o^  the  old  play  of  "  Mucedorus  "  in  the  country 
town  of  Whitny,  an  accident  occurred  that  killed  some  and 
injured  many  others.  John  Rowe,  a  Puritan  Lecturer  from 
Oxford,  who  saw  in  the  disaster  the  hand  of  Nemesis,  records 
the  happening  in  a  pamphlet  which  he  entitled  "  Tragi- 
Comoedia,"  evidently  by  reason  of  the  tragical  consequences 
visited  upon  the  performance  of  a  comedy.- 

This  pamphlet  use  of  the  title  name  is  a  distinct  innovation 
that  sprang  up  during  the  troubled  times  when  England  was 
torn  in  civil  strife.  Following  the  dissensions  between  King 
and  Parliament  and  the  ascendency  of  Cromwell  to  power, 
there  was  a  general  upgrowth  of  political  and  personal  lam- 
poons, usually  by  anonymous  authors  who  championed  the 
royalist  cause  and  took  this  means  of  heaping  scurrilous  abuse 
upon  the  Roundheads.  Not  a  few  of  these  libels  were  couched 
in  dramatic  form,  and  for  some  reason  or  other  usually  settled 
on  the  name  of  tragicomedy  to  denote  their  type.^  The  earli- 
est political  squib  of  this  sort  is  the  work  of  Richard  Braith- 
wait,  who  produced  in  1641  a  prose  piece  in  four  short  acts 
called  "  Mercurius  Britanicus,  or  The  English  Intelligencer," 
described  on  the  title  as  "A  Tragic-Comedy,  at  Paris.    Acted 

^Memoirs,  I,  391.  There  is  also  record  of  an  attempted  performance 
of  King  and  No  King  at  Salisbury  Court  sometime  in  1647.  Fleay, 
History  of  the  Stage,  p.  365  ;  Ward,  III,  278. 

-  To  continue  the  title :  Being  a  Brief  Relation  of  the  Strange  and 
Wonderfull  hand  of  God  discovered  at  Witny,  in  the  Comedy  Acted  there 
February  the  Third,  where  there  were  some  slaine,  many  hurt,  with 
severall  other  Remarkable  Passages.  Together  with  zvhat  zvas  preached 
in  three  Sermons  on  that  occasion  from  Rom.  I.  18.  Both  which  may 
serve  as  some  Check  to  the  growing  Atheisme  of  the  Present  Age.  By 
John  Rowe  of  C.  C.  C.  in  Oxford,  Lecturer  in  the  Towne  of  Witny.  Ox- 
ford, 1653.     See  Collier,  II,  118;  Ward,  III,  281  n. 

^  Occasionally,  it  seems,  as  in  the  case  of  the  Puritan  tract  of  Rowe 
cited  above,  pamphlets  without  dramatic  form  were  given  the  genre  name. 
Another  instance  of  the  same  is  a  Latin  satirical  poem  by  the  Rev.  Adam 
Littleton,  written  to  ridicule  the  proceedings  of  the  parliamentary  visitors 
appointed  in  1647  for  the  visitation  of  Oxford,  entitled  Tragi-Comadia 
Oxoniensis,    i648(?). 


152 

with  great  Applause."  A  sub-heading  which  reads,  "  The 
Censure  of  the  Judges;  or  The  Court  Cure,"  betrays  the 
nature  of  the  piece,  which,  despite  its  dramatic  externals,  is 
only  a  royalist  attack  on  the  political  transactions  and  person- 
ages of  the  eventful  period  ushering  in  the  civil  war,  and  was 
never  intended  for  presentation.*  The  later  half-dozen  or 
more  pamphlet  tragi-comedies  of  the  period  are  rather  less 
pretentious  and  evidently  the  work  of  men  of  inferior  genius. 
Usually  the  title  is  sufficient  to  reveal  the  nature  of  the  brief 
contents  of  these  pseudo-dramas,  which — ^whether  religious, 
personal  or  political — are  all  virulently  anti-Puritan.  The 
Commonwealth  party  in  general  and  Presbyterianism  in  par- 
ticular are  the  butts  of  abuse  in  a  print  of  1647,  called  "  The 
Scottish  Politick  Presbyter,  Slain  by  an  English  Indepen- 
dent "  f  while  the  "  Presbyterian  Lash :  or,  Noctrofifs  Maid 
whipt,""  is  a  coarse  personal  satire  on  Zackary  Crofton,  a 
non-conformist  divine,  who  was  prosecuted  for  whipping  his 
maid-servant  and  had  the  temerity  to  print  a  defense  of  his 
action.'^  Others  were  frankly  seditious,  such  as  "  Craftie 
Cromwell,"  in  two  parts  (1648),  written  respectively  by  "  Mer- 
curius  Melancholicus "   and  "  Marcurius   Pragmaticus,"*  and 

*  There  also  exists  an  undated  Latin  edition  of  this  piece,  for  which 
see  Appendix.  Some  years  later  the  ready  pen  of  the  same  author  pro- 
duced another  royalist  pamphlet  of  the  same  sort,  dealing — as  the  title 
declares — with  the  murder  of  Charles  I :  Tragi-Comcedia,  Cut  in  Tituhim 
inscribitur  Regicidium,  etc.,   1665.      For  full  title  see  Appendix. 

^  The  Scottish  Politick  Presbyter,  Slain  by  an  English  Independent :  Or; 
the  independents  victory  over  the  presbyterian  party.  The  rigour  of  the 
Scotch  government,  their  conniving  and  bribing;  the  lewdness  and  de- 
bauchery of  elders  in  secret.  A  tragi-comedy,  1647.  Reprinted  in  the 
Harleian  Miscellany,  VI,  80. 

^  The  Presbyterian  Lash:  or,  Noctroffs  Maid  zvhipt.  A  Tragy-comedy 
As  it  was  lately  acted  in  the  great  roome  at  the  Pye  Tavern  at  Algaie. 
By  Noctroffe  the  Priest,  and  sevcraU  his  parishioners  at  the  eating  of  a 
chine  of  beefe.  The  first  part.  London.  Printed  for  the  use  of  Mr. 
Noctroffs  friends.  1661.  Supposed  to  be  the  work  of  Francis  Kirkman, 
the  book-seller,  from  the  fact  that  the  dedication  bears  the  initials 
"K.  F." 

'  Kennett,  Register  and  Chronicle  (1728),  p.  797. 

*  Craftie  Cromwell,  Or,  Oliver  ordering  our  New  State.  A  tragi-comedie. 
Wherein  is  discovered  the  trayterous  undertakings  and  proceedings  of  the 


153 

likewise  the  two  parts  of  the  "  Tragi-Comedy,  called  New- 
Market-Fayre,"''  of  the  following  year,  in  which  the  Pro- 
tector and  Fairfax  were  again  coarsely  satirized  and  abused; 
while  the  last  "tragicomedy "  of  the  sort  of  which  there  is 
record  is  a  "  Cromwell's  Conspiracy,"  printed  in  1660.^° 

There  is  little  to  be  said  of  these  productions,  and  of  course 
their  only  interest  here  is  in  the  use  of  the  title  name.  They 
are  all  of  a  type,  arranged  in  five  short  acts  of  prose  and  dog- 
gerel, abusive  in  tone,  and  potently  reflective  of  the  hatred 
of  the  loyalists  for  the  Puritans.  In  the  political  libels,  the 
traitorous  proceedings  of  the  rebels  are  exposed  and  arraigned, 
and  their  leaders  ridiculed  and  always  shown  as  coming  to 
grief  at  the  end.  Cromwell  and  Fairfax  are  of  course  the 
chief  objects  of  attack;  they  are  represented  as  possessed  with 
devils,  reviled  and  lampooned  in  every  way,  and  their  wives 
come  in  for  even  more  indecent  ribaldry.  That  the  name  of 
tragicomedy  proved  a  popular  label  for  this  particular  brand 
of  literature  is  probably  due  to  the  mock  nature  of  the  con- 
tents. A  burlesque  of  state  affairs  arranged  in  dramatic  form 
would  perhaps  most  naturally  suggest  the  composite  term  of 
tragicomedy  especially  in  an  age  when  that  particular  species 
was  a  popular  form  of  drama.  At  any  rate,  the  pamphlet 
tragicomedy,  which  came  into  being  during  the  era  of  closed 
theaters,  is  interesting  as  adding  one  to  the  many  uses  that  the 

Said  Not,  and  his  levelling  crezv.  Written  by  Mercurius  Melancholicus. 
Printed  in  the  yeare,  1648. 

The  Second  part  of  Crafty  Critmwell ;  or  Oliver  in  his  glory  as  king. 
A  Trage  Comniedie  Wherein  is  presented,  the  late  treasonable  undertakings, 
and  proceedings,  of  the  Rebells,  their  murthering  of  Capt.  Barley,  with 
their  underhand  workings  to  betray  their  King.  Written  by  Marcurius 
Pragmaticus.     London,  Printed  in  the  yeare,  1648. 

^A  Tragi-Comedy,  called  New-Market-Fayre,  or  a  Parliament  Out-Cry: 
of  State-Commodities,  set  to  sale.     Printed  at  you  may  goe  look.     1649. 

The  Second  Part  of  the  Tragi-Comedy,  Called  New-Market-Fayre,  Or 
Mrs.  Parliaments  New  Figaryes.  Written  by  the  Man  in  the  Moon. 
Printed  at  You  may  goe  look.     1649. 

^"  Cromwell's  Conspiracy.  A  tragy-comedy,  relating  to  our  latter  times. 
Beginning  at  the  death  of  King  Charles  the  First,  and  ending  with  the 
happy  restauration  of  King  Charles  the  Second.  Written  by  a  Person  of 
Quality.      London.       1660. 


154 

title  name  had  been  called  upon  to  serve  in  the  past.     Its  next 
appearance  belongs  to  a  later  period  of  troubled  politics. 

But  we  need  not  look  to  pamphlets  or  to  the  publication  of 
old  plays  for  the  sole  manner  in  which  tragicomedy  is  asso- 
ciated with  the  period  of  the  Commonwealth.  Dramatic  com- 
position did  not  entirely  cease  for  lack  of  a  public  stage ;  and 
the  fact  that  tragicomedy  which  had  so  lately  conquered  the 
theaters  continued  to  have  its  disciples  is  evidenced  by  the 
really  remarkable  number  of  such  plays  that  fall  between 
1642  and  the  Restoration.  All  were  the  work  of  loyalists.  _ 
patrons  of  poetry  who  found  time  to  cultivate  the  drama  even 
in  "  this  tragical  age,  when  the  theater  hath  been  so  much  out- 
acted."  None  were  presented,  at  least  not  publicly ;  and  while 
most  are  of  slight  merit,  they  have  a  little  historical  interest. 
Some  of  these  pieces  are  to  be  found  among  the  literary  diver- 
sions with  which  banished  royalists  occasionally  sought  to 
while  away  the  tedium  of  exile.  Of  this  nature  are  two  ten- 
act  tragicomedies,  "  Bellamira "  and  "  Cicilia  and  Clorinda," 
which  came  from  the  pen  of  "  Tom "  Killigrew  while  official 
Resident  for  Charles  II  in  Venice,  165 1.  These  romantic 
effusions — the  latter  of  which  borrows  from  the  "  Grand 
Cyrus " — are  of  the  same  harrowing  type  of  the  author's 
earlier  tragicomedies.  Princesses  are  in  distress  and  villains 
pursue  until  the  latter  are  killed  and  the  former  married  to 
the  princes  of  their  choice,  altho  "  Cicilia  and  Clorinda  "  even 
ends  half  tragically  for  the  lovers.  Similarly,  two  of  the 
productions  of  Sir  William  Lower,  another  exiled  patron  of 
the  drama  who  employed  his  leisure  in  literary  pursuits  are 
tragicomedies,  altho  not  original  compositions.  "  The  Noble 
Ingratitude,"  which  styles  itself  a  "  Pastoral-Tragi-Comedy," 
and  "  The  Amorous  Fantasme  "  are  taken  from  the  French  of 
Phillippe  Ouinault,  and  both  were  printed  at  the  Hague,  1659 
and  1660,  where  Lower  had  taken  service  in  the  household  of 
Mary  of  Orange  during  the  Commonwealth. 

Other  ardent  loyalists  of  the  time  of  little  note  as  poets 
kept  alive  the  old  conventional  type  of  romantic  drama  with 
tragicomedies  in  which  loyal  sentiment  is  notably  prominent. 
A  certain  Cosmo  Manuche,  an  Italian  who  served  as  major  in 


155 

the  army  of  Charles  I,  wrote  two  plays,  both  of  this  type,  and 
took  little  pains  to  disguise  his  political  affiliations.  "  The 
Loyal  Lovers"  (1652),  in  fact,  is  meant  for  contemporary 
application,  satirizing  the  adherents  of  the  local  government 
in  the  knaves  and  rascals  of  the  comic  plot ;  while  the  romantic 
characters — the  loyal  lovers  and  their  friends — are  repre- 
sented as  champions  of  the  King's  cause. ^^  Again,  Manuche's 
other  play,  the  "Just  General"  (1650),  shows  the  faithful 
loyalty  of  Bellicosus,  who  steadily  refuses  to  accede  to  popular 
clamor  and  mount  the  throne  which  his  young  king  has  de- 
serted to  go  in  pursuit  of  a  lost  mistress.  Otherwise,  these 
plays  are  trite  enough  with  their  averted  executions  and  super- 
plus  of  disguise.  Equally  conventional  is  a  tragicomedy  by 
George  Gerbier  D'Ouvilly,  a  Dutch  soldier  in  the  royal  cause 
and  dabbler  in  writing,  entitled  "  The  False  Favorite  Dis- 
graced" (1657),  a  play  whose  plot,  setting  and  character  cast 
offer  nothing  new  over  the  villain  type  of  tragicomedy  that 
Shirley  and  others  had  perfected.^-  "  Love's  Victory,"  a  con- 
temporary piece  by  William  Chamberlayne  is  also  a  tragi- 
comedy and  one  which  the  author  confessedly  wrote  only  for 
reading,  altho  an  alteration  under  another  name  appeared  later 
on  the  Restoration  stage. ^^  Loyal  sentiment  is  again  much  in 
evidence  in  the  romantic  plot,  which  takes  us  to  Sicily,  where 
an  insurrection  against  the  throne  is  subdued  by  Oroandes, 
the  faithful  general  and  very  embodiment  of  loyalty.  The 
rebellion  quelled,  rivalry  in  love  sets  in  between  the  monarch 
and  his  subject,  and  Oroandes  is  compelled  to  meet  his  king 

"  Also  called  The  Royal  Lovers, 

^  The  scene  where  Pausanio,  the  banished  general,  at  his  restoration 
demands  the  punishment  of  his  rebellious  son,  is  evidently  borrowed — as 
Genest  notes  (X,  132) — from  Fletcher's  Loyal  Subject.  Also  the  device 
of  the  Duke  adopting  Friar's  disguise  to  discover  the  true  state  of  affairs, 
had  been  employed  in  tragicomedy  by  Massinger  in  the  Emperor  of  the 
East,  and  Shirley  in  the  Gentleman  of  Venice. 

^^  Wits  Led  by  the  Nose;  or,  A  Poet's  Revenge:  A  Tragi-Comedy,  an 
anonymous  redaction  of  Chamberlayne's  play,  acted  1677  and  printed  the 
following  year.  The  comic  plot,  in  which  the  chief  characters  are  English 
gulls  who  are  the  dupes  of  their  servants,  is  much  exalted  here  and  gives 
the  name  to  the  alteration.  There  is  no  variation  in  the  serious  theme, 
which  is  in  prose,  verse  and  rime.      See  Genest,  I,  203. 


156 

in  duel.  The  King  falls ;  and  Oroandes,  mad  with  grief,  be- 
lieving himself  a  regicide,  is  only  prevented  at  the  end  from 
self-destruction  by  the  reappearance  of  the  monarch,  alive  and 
moreover  united  to  a  former  lost  mistress,  so  all  are  appeased. 
Of  no  connexion  with  the  serious  theme  is  an  absurd  comic 
plot  wdiich  apparently  supplied  the  chief  interest  in  the  later 
alteration  of  the  play. 

The  other  tragicomedies  that  fall  within  the  period  of  closed 
theaters  may  be  readily  dismissed.  A  number  survive  only 
in  titles;^*  while  the  "Wandering  Lover  "  (1658),  a  ridiculous 
prose  composition  of  a  youth  of  twenty,  Thomas  Aleriton,  is 
too  trifling  for  comment  ;^^  and  "  Love's  Labyrinth ;  or  the 
Royal  Shepherdess"  (1660)  of  Thomas  Forde,  is  an  unhappy 
attempt  at  Arcadian  pastoral.^*'  All  these  plays  clearly  be- 
long to  the  drama  of  the  past,  and  indicate  no  new  interests — 
vmless  political — on  the  part  of  their  authors,  who  at  best  were 
only  writing  for  diversion.  They  show  the  persistent  vitality 
of  the  genre,  and  serve  to  keep  its  traditions  unbroken  during 
the  long  pause  in  the  acted  drama  before  the  new  tastes  and 
fresh  influences  of  the  Restoration  demanded  change. 

The  return  of  the  Stuarts  to  power  in  1660  marks  the  begin- 
ning of  important  innovations  in  things  dramatic  as  in  all 
else.  The  general  revival  of  dramatic  activity,  thus  inaugu- 
rated, had  already  been  anticipated  by  Davenant's  cultivation 
of  a  sister-art,  and  England  now  had  the  opera  as  well  as  the 

"In  Robert  Baron's  Pocida  Cast  alia  (1650)  there  is  a  poem  addressed, 
To  my  Honour d  Friend  Benjamin  Garfield  Esq;  Upon  his  excellent  Tragi- 
comedy entitled  The  Unfortunate  Fortunate,  p.  112.  Nothing  further  is 
known  of  this  play,  nor  of  two  other  tragicomedies  advertised  at  the 
end  of  The  New  World  of  English  Words  (1658)  as  "in  the  Presse,  and 
ready  for  printing,"  and  again,  three  years  later,  at  the  end  of  the  1661 
ed.  of  Wit  and  Drollery,  Joviall  Poems: — The  History  of  Lezcis  the 
eleventh  King  of  France:  a  Trage-Comedy,  and  The  fair  Spanish  Captive: 
a  Trage-Comedy.  There  may  also  be  chronicled  an  Alfrede  or  Right 
Reinthron'd.  Being  a  Tragi-comcdic.  a  manuscript  play  in  the  Bodleian, 
dated  1659  and  dedicated  to  Lady  Blount  by  her  brother  R.  K. 

"  For  a  critical  estimate  of  this  play  and  its  author,  consult  Langbaine, 
Dramatick  Poets,  p.  367  ff. 

"  For  full  account  of  this  play,  see  Homer  Smith,  Pastoral  Influence,  etc.. 
Pub.  Mod.  Lang.  Assn.   (1897),   XII,   387. 


157 

regular    drama.      New    theatrical    conditions    resulted    in    an 
altered  and  more  modern  stage.     A  front  curtain  was  intro- 
duced, scenic  effects  secured  by  the  innovation  of  movable 
scenery,    and    for   the   first   time   woman   actors    interpreted 
female  roles.    Two  rival  companies  were  given  a  monopoly  of  N 
all  public  performances;  and,  as  both  catered  exclusively  to 
royal  patronage,  the  drama  became  less  representative  of  the 
people  and  more  subservient  to  the  narrow  and  corrupt  society 
of  the  court.    Of  the  old  dramatists,  Davenant  and  Killigrew,^-' 
alone  remained,  and  the  latter  had  deserted  playwriting  for 
theatrical  management.     Above  all,  French  influence  had  set\ 
in,   and  its  dominance  in  dramatic  art  and  criticism  is  con- 
tinuous  thruout  the  period.  / 

Altered  conditions  and  fresh  impulses  were  straightway 
effective  in  breaking  up  the  conventional  grooves  into  which 
the  drama  of  the  past  had  settled.  Yet  the  old  still  exer- 
cised a  potent  sway  over  the  new.  The  opening  of  the 
theaters  witnessed  a  prompt  revival  of  the  earlier  favorites, 
especially  the  plays  of  Shakspere  and  Beaumont  and  Fletcher, 
whose  popularity,  indeed,  was  unabating  thruout  the  rest  of 
the  century.  INIany  of  the  old  plays  had  long  runs.  Among 
tragicomedies,  "  A  King  and  No  King,"  "  Humorous  Lieuten- 
ant," "Philaster,"  "Loyal  Subject,"  ''Spanish  Curate,"  "Mad 
Lover  "  and  "  A  Wife  for  a  Month,"  were  all  stock  plays  during 
the  early  sixties,  and  Davenant's  "  Love  and  Hono£"  seems  to 
have  been  revived  with  great  success.  Moreover,  the  same 
author's  two  post-Restoration  tragicomedies  are  only  redac- 
tions of  earlier  plays.  The  "  Law  against  Lovers,"  acted  in 
1662,  is  an  alteration  of  Shakspere's  "  Measure  for  Measure," 
with  the  characters  of  Benedict  and  Beatrice  from  "  Much 
Ado  "  added;  and  the  "Rivals,"  a  stock  play  in  1664,  is  made 
over  from  the  "  Two  Noble  Kinsmen,"  with  an  alteration  of 
the  denouement  that  preserves  both  princes  alive  at  the  end. 
It  is  no  doubt  largely  due  to  this  continued  interest  in  the\ 
drama  of  the  earlier  generation  that  tragicomedy  owes  its 
perpetuation  thruout  an  age  dominated  by  French  models  and 
French  pseudo-classicism.    For  with  the  Restoration  era  Eng-X" 


158 

lish  tragicomedy  settles  into  a  period  of  steady  decline,  per- 
ceptible almost  from  the  beginning.^^ 

y  Signs  of  decadent  interest  in  the  type  are  evident  in  many 
ways,  altho  tragicomedies  continued  to  be  written  in  some 
number  thruout  the  period.  But  instead  of  receiving  the 
attention  of  the  chief  pla}^vrights  as  in  the  earlier  Stuart 
reigns,  the  species  is  rarely  cultivated  by  the  leading  figures 

\of  the  age,  with  the  notable  exception  of  Dryden.  And  the 
mere  number  of  tragicomedies  becomes  less  impressive  on 
examination.  Many  are  only  alterations  of  earlier  models — 
as  in  the  case  of  Davenant's  two  plays  mentioned  above — or 
translations  of  foreign  originals ;  others  are  trifling  produc- 
tions, political  lampoons  or  anomalies  of  some  sort,  most  of 
which  were  never  intended  for  the  stage ;  and  the  great 
majority  of  conventional  pieces  are  scattered  among  authors 
of  little  reputation  as  playwrights.  Thus,  a  comparison  of 
the  sum  of  Restoration  tragicomedy  with  that  of  the  later 
Elizabethans,  shows  emphatically  that  the  type  had  reached 
its  high-water  mark  in  the  earlier  period  and  was  now  reced- 
ing.    Causes  of  decline  are  readily  evident. 

It  can  hardly  be  said  that  popular  taste  was  reacting  against 
the  drama  of  thrills  and  happy  ending,  for  popular  taste  was 
now  a  more  or  less  negligible  quantity  as  a  factor  for  play- 
wrights to  reckon  with.  The  guiding  spirit  in  the  drama  had, 
shifted  from  the  general  public  to  the  court,  where  French 
precept  in  dramaHc^""aft^and  criticism  held  full—swaii.  The 
influence  of  current  French  fashions  and  models  thus  brought 
to  bear  on  the  English  drama  could  not  but  vitally  affect  tragi- 
comedy.    By_j66o  the  genre  itself  in  France  was  practically 

"  At  the  conclusion  of  Davenant's  Law  against  Lovers  the  conversation 
between  Benedict  and  Beatrice  seems  to  contain  an  oblique  reference  to 
the   decay   of   tragicomedy : 

Ben.      I   am   afraid  'tis  a  Licence  for  Marriage. 
Beat.     No,   Sir,   Plays  that  end  so,  begin  to  be 
Out  of  fashion. 

Ben.      Do  you  not   see  your   Cousin   Juliet? 

She  has  been  advis'd  by  a  bauld  Dramatick  Poet 
Of  the  next  Cloister,  to  end  her  Tragy-Comedy 
With   Hymen  the  old  way. 


159 

dead  and  the  regular  drama  of  Corneille  and  Racine  reigned 
supreme.  With  the  introduction  oT  classical  rule  and  pre- 
cept into  England,  popular  tragicomedy  becanie  outlawed, 
and  was  forced  to  look  for  sole  support  to  its  owtTtraditions^ 
which  continued  strong  enough  to  enable  it  to  live  but  not  to 
rule.  In  the  struggle  thus  begun  between  pseudo-classicism  N^ 
on  the  "one  hand^^  and  English  tradition  on  the  other,  tragi- 
comedy  was  quickly  dethroned,  and  rimed  heroic  tragedy  jn- 
stalled  in  its  stead.  With  each  of  these  contending  forces/ 
our  subject  is  related.  Its  continuation  along  the  lines  of 
past  tradition  deserves  the  first  consideration. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  tragicomedy  at  the  end  of  the 
Elizabethan  period  was  a  fairly  well  defined  species  of  roman- 
tic drama,  displaying  various  characteristics,  chief  of  which 
was  the  happy  ending.  The  first  decade  following  the  Res- 
toration may  be  roughly  taken  as  a  time  when  tragicomedies 
of  the  old  school  were  still  somewhat  in  vogue,  tho  showing 
occasional  traces  of  the  new  fashions.  For  example,  Richard 
Fiecknoe,  whose  first  tragicomedy  of  "  Erminia  "  (1661)  was 
refused  the  stage,  came  forward  in  1664  with  "  Love's  King- 
dom," a  pastoral  tragicomedy  written  according  to  the  clas- 
sical unities.^^  The  dramatis  personae  as  well  offer  departures 
from  the  well-worn  Arcadian  type.  Shepherds  are  lacking, 
the  ladies  are  all  "  nymphs,"  and  the  satyr's  place  is  taken  by 
Pamphilus,  "  a  vicious  young  fellow,  stranger  to  Love's  King- 
dom." But  the  plot  has  familiar  traits :  the  love-chain  is 
present,  rivals  contend  over  the  honor  of  dying  for  their  mis- 
tress, and  the  whole  action  centers  on  the  strange  laws  so 
commonly  met  in  pastoral  and  tragicomedy.  Of  similar  type 
is  Shadwell's  "Royal  Shepherdess"  (1669),  which  the  author 
confesses  to  be  an  adaptation  from  Fountain's  "  Rewards  of 
Virtue  " ;  his  own  contribution  consisting  chiefly  in  transfer- 
ring the  narrative  into  action,  for,  "  tho  the  French  do  often 
relate  the  most  considerable  actions  in  their  plays,  especially 

'*  In  the  avithor's  words,  "  With  all  the  Rules  of  Time  and  Place  so 
exactly  observ'd,  as  whilst  for  Time  'tis  all  compriz'd  in  as  few  hours 
as  there  are  Acts ;  for  the  Place,  it  never  goes  out  of  the  view  or 
prospect  of  Loves  Temple." 


160 

in  their  tragedies,  the  EngHsh  will  not  be  content  without  see- 
ing such  actions  done."  The  piece  is  only  a  conglomerate  of 
old  tragicomic  motives  and  situations,  linked  to  pastoral  chiefly 
in  the  figure  of  the  heroine,  a  supposed  shepherdess,  who  is 
saved  from  execution  in  the  end  by  the  discovery  of  her  royal 
birth.  Stapylton's  "Stepmother"  (1663)  shows  its  relation 
to  the  new  period  in  the  introduction  of  elaborate  masques  and 
much  of  an  operatic  nature,  and  its  adherence  to  the  old  in  a 
romantic  plot  of  conventional  design.  The  Stepmother  her- 
self is  a  villainous  woman — a  common  Restoration  type — who 
is  bent  on  murdering  her  second  husband,  a  Prince  of  Veru- 
1am,  and  his  two  children,  who — it  happens — are  in  love  with 
her  own  two  children.  But  a  conversion  of  character  brings 
all  to  rights. 

The  old  romanticism  is  equally  dominant  in  Dryden's  first 
tragicomedy,  the  "Rival  Ladies"  (1664),  in  James  Howard's 
"All  Mistaken"  (1667),  a  play  combining  a  serious  and  a 
comic  plot,  and  in  the  tragicomedies  of  Sir  William  Killigrew, 
"  Ormasdes,"  "Selindra"  and  the  "Siege  of  Urbin  "   (1665- 

/  66).  Dryden's  play  especially  is  reminiscent  of  the  Beaumont- 
Fletcher  style.  A  few  parts,  indeed,  are  executed  in  rime — 
the  author's  first  experiment  in  that  kind  of  verse ;  but  the 
play  is  clearly  indicative  of  Dryden's  early  adherence  to  the 
old  English  drama,  and  is  distinctly  removed  from  his  later 

\and  more  representative  method  of  tragicomedy.  A  Spanish 
novel  is  the  source  of  an  elaborately  complicated  plot,  full  of 
rapid  and  varied  action,  in  which  romantic  improbabilities  run 
riot  and  an  astounding  denouement  not  only  preserves  all  from 
impending  disaster  but  solves  a  most  elaborate  love-chain. ^^ 
The  tragicomedies  of  William  Killigrew,  on  the  other  hand, 
are  evidently  modeled  on  the  earlier  melodramatic  eflfusions 
of  his  younger  brother  Thomas.    Two  are  written  in  the  same 

"•  A  contemporary  tragicomedy  also  of  Spanish  ancestry  is  Sir  Samuel 
Tuke's  Adventures  of  Five  Hours  (1663),  taken  from  Coello's  Los  Empenos 
de  Sets  Haras.  This  adaptation  had  a  most  extraordinary  popularity. 
Three  editions  appeared  in  eight  years  ;  and  Pepys  and  other  contempora- 
ries testify  to  its  great  stage  success.  It  much  resembles  Davenant's  Dis- 
tresses in  bustling  action,  distressed  damsels  and  superfluity  of  complica- 
tions. 


161 

prose  style,  and  all  exhibit  an  almost  equal  fondness  for  dis- 
tressed princesses,  intriguing  villains,  fighting,  rescues,  and 
general  romantic  extravagance.  In  one,  Urbin  is  besieged  by 
a  lover  who  wooes  with  an  army ;  in  "  Ormasdes,"  the  rela- 
tive merits  of  love  and  friendship  are  put  forward  to  the 
exaltation  of  the  latter ;  and  "  Selindra  "  introduces  us  to  an 
unknown  princess  of  Hungary,  who  between  lovers  and  villains 
is  batted  about  like  a  shuttle-cock  until  the  discovery  of 
her  identity  brings  happiness.  In  all,  the  device  of  concealed 
identity  plays  a  main  part,  perhaps  carried  to  the  most  extrava- 
gant limits  in  the  "  Siege  of  Urbin,"  where  the  city  is  relieved 
by  the  combined  efforts  of  two  martial  strangers,  one  of  whom 
turns  out  to  be  a  rival  of  the  besieging  Duke  and  the  other  a 
damsel  who  has  donned  armor  for  the  sake  of  love.  Of  these 
three  indifferent  plays,  "  Selindra "  alone  is  known  to  have 
been  acted.  A  few  other  so-called  tragicomedies  of  no  vital 
consequence  also  belong  to  these  years  of  the  dominance  of 
the  earlier  drama  ;-^  but  the  plays  above  mentioned  trace  the 

^  In  the  1662  folio  of  the  Duchess  of  Newcastle's  peculiar  dramatic 
compositions,  there  is  one  entitled  Matrimonial  Trouble^  in  two  parts,  the 
first  called  a  Comedy  and  the  second,  which  ends  in  deaths,  a  Come- 
Tragedy.  And  as  one  of  her  others.  The  Religions,  contains  an  averted 
tragedy,  it  is  also  sometimes  classed  as  a  tragicomedy.  None  of  the  plays 
of  this  lady  were  ever  acted.  They  are  in  a  class  by  themselves ;  all  are 
of  her  own  invention,  and  made  up  of  a  series  of  disjoined  scenes  in 
which  allegorical  personages  carry  on  conversation.  Her  acquaintance 
with  tragicomedy  is  voiced  in  one  of  her  prefaces  thus :  "  In  Tragi-Come- 
dies  I  think  Poets  do  not  alwayes  make  all  lye  bleeding  together ;  but  I 
think  for  the  most  part  they  do ;  but  the  want  of  this  swarm  in  the  last 
Act  and  Scene,  may  make  my  Playes  seem  dull  and  vacant." 

Equally  unimportant  is  a  tragicomedy  called  Marciano ;  or  The  Dis- 
covery, an  occasional  piece  acted  by  amateurs  in  honor  of  the  Royal  Com- 
missioner, at  Edinburgh,  1663,  and  assigned  to  Wm.  Clark.  It  presents  a 
romantic  story,  advanced  chiefly  by  a  series  of  soliloquies,  and  regularly 
interspersed  with  comic  scenes ;  for,  as  the  Preface  explains,  "  least  it 
should  seem  too  serious  for  the  pallats  of  those,  who  expected  nothing  from 
the  Stage  but  mirth:  It  was  thought  fit  to  interlude  it  with  a  comick 
transaction."     (Reprinted  with   introduction  by  W.   H.   Logan,   Edinburgh, 

1871.) 

Another  anomaly  of  the  genre  title  is  A  Witty  Combat:  or,  the  Female 
Victor    (1663),   supposedly   by   Thomas    Porter,   and  described   as   "Acted 

12 


162 

main  course  of  tragicomedy  of  old  tradition  before  Dryden's 
"  Essay  of  Dramatic  Poesy." 

Turning  now  to  tragicomedy  in  connexion  with  the  new- 
aspects  of  the  drama,  we  are  confronted  with  the  question  of 
its  relation  to  the  rimed  heroic  species  that  sprang  into  being 
in  the  early  years  of  the  Restoration,  and  for  a  time  ruled 
/  supreme.  In  its  essentials  the  new  heroic  play  was  no  stranger 
on  the  English  stage.  Extravagant  nobility  of  sentiment,  ex- 
aggerated valor,  heroic  actions,  and  the  other  accompaniments 
of  the  form  had  been  current  in  English  drama  since  Beau- 
mont and  Fletcher.-^  ]\Ioreover,  these  traits  had  found  their 
chief  abiding  place  in  tragicomedy.  Witness  the  conflicts  be- 
tween love  and  honor,  the  strained  emotion,  the  rivalries  in 
noble  self-sacrifice,  and  the  paragons  of  virtue  that  appear 
constantly  in  the  tragicomedies  of  the  last  of  the  Elizabethans, 
notably  Carlell,  Cartwright  and  Davenant.  In  fundamental 
character,  at  least,  the  heroic  play  of  the  Restoration  was  the 
direct  product  of  latter-day  tragicomedy.  But  the  influx  of 
French  ideas  brought  changes  which  in  all  but  few  mstances 
definitely  separated  the  rimed  species  from  the  sphere  of  its 
progenitor.  The  perfected  heroic  type  was  regular.  It  obeyed 
rules  and  proprieties,  or  at  least  approximated  them.  Rime 
supplanted  verse;  pure  comedy  was  tabooed;  and  above  all, 
\  poetic  justice  was  administered  with  severity. 

The  result  was  a  stauncher  type  of  play,  not  tragedy  of  the 
traditional  formula  always,  but  tragic  over  and  above  tragi- 
/ comedy.  Perhaps  quite  as  many  heroic  plays  confine  their 
catastrophe  to  the  wicked  as  end  in  a  general  slaughter.  For 
example,  in  all  of  Dryden's  so-called  heroic  tragedies  the  lovers 
are  allowed  to  live  and  the  deaths  are  visited  upon  others, 

by  Persons  of  Quality  in  Whitson-Week  with  great  applause."  The  piece 
is  a  short  prose  skit  of  pure  comedy,  dramatizing  a  current  incident  that 
was  causing  a  great  stir  in  London.  A  certain  Mary  Moders,  a  notorious 
impostor,  it  seems,  had  palmed  herself  off  as  a  German  Princess  and  in- 
duced a  young  lawyer's  clerk  to  marry  her ;  and  this  is  the  basis  of  the 
play.  The  German  Princess  that  Pepys  saw  acted  April  15,  1664,  is 
probably  the  same  piece.     (See   Genest,   I,    51-3.) 

"  See  James  W.  Tupper,  Relation  of  the  Heroic  Play  to  the  Romances  of 
Beaumont   and  Fletcher.     Pnbl.  Mod.  Lang.  Assn.,   1905. 


163 

usually  the  villainous.  This  double  ending,  in  fact,  seems  to 
have  been  the  ideal  arrangement ;  for  in  the  typical  heroic  play 
the  hero  and  heroine  come  off  victorious,  tho  their  happy  union 
be  ever  so  dearly  purchased.  But  such  plays,  if  incomplete  as 
tragedies,  are  certainly  not  tragicomedies.  True,  in  many 
plays  of  the  latter  species,  deaths  are  by  no  means  lacking  and 
villains  not  infrequently  suffer  a  tragic  fate;  but  instances  of 
the  sort  are  usually  well  confined  to  the  background  and  are 
not  intended  to  arouse  either  pity  or  terror.  In  the  heroic  play 
the  reverse  is  true.  When  events  reach  a  tragic  crisis,  death 
leaves  in  its  w^ake  kings  and  queens  and  emperors,  all  villains 
perhaps,  but  still  leading  characters,  so  that  the  union  of  lovers 
is  really  incidental  to  the  tragic  part  of  the  denouement.         y^ 

Yet  in  a  few  cases  tragicomedy  is  definitely  identified  with 
the  rimed  heroic  play  of  approved  pattern.  One  or  two  even, 
which  offered  tragicomic  action,  were  boldly  written  as  such, 
but  as  a  rule  all  were  denominated  tragedies  whether  they  ad- 
mitted deaths  or  not."  Thus  Orrery's  "Henry  V"  (1664) 
and  "Black  Prince"  (1667)  contain  nothing  tragic  in  their 
actions ;  yet,  while  the  first  contents  itself  with  the  title  of 
"  History,"  the  latter  adds  that  of  "  Tragedy  "-^ — a  misnomer 
that  called  from  the  contemporaneous  Langbaine  the  following 
significant  comment :  "  Tho'  this  Play  in  the  Title-page  be  call'd 
a  Tragedy,  yet  it  ends  successfully :  and  therefore  I  presume 
was  rather  stiled  so  by  the  Author,  from  the  Quality  and 
Grandeur  of  the  Persons  in  the  Dramma,  than  from  any  unfor- 
tunate Catastrophe."-*  Both  plays,  indeed,  have  all  the  dignity 
of  tragedy  except  painful  or  destructive  action,  and  both  rigidly 

^  An  exception  may  be  noted  in  a  MS.  copy  of  Orrery's  Tryplion  in  the 
Bodleian :  Triphon,  a  traje-comedy,  written  by  the  right  honourable  Roger 
earle  of  Orrery.  The  play  was  printed  1669  as  a  Tragedy.  It  follows 
the  usual  scheme  of  double  ending :  the  villainous  tyrant  and  his  con- 
federate kill  themselves  and  the  lovers  are  happily  joined.  A  later 
romantic  tragedy  of  like  catastrophe,  The  Unnatural  Mother  (1698),  Anon., 
was  entered  on  the  Term  Catalogues  in  Feb.  of  that  year  as  a  Tragi- 
comedy, and  printed  without  any  classification. 

^Listed,  however,  on  the  Term  Catalogues,  Nov.  22,  1669,  as  a  Tragi- 
comedy. 

^ Dramatick  Poets  (1691),  p.  27. 


164 

/  follow  French  practise ;  "  Henry  V,"  in  fact,  which  claims  the 
distinction  of  being  the  first  full-fledged  English  heroic  play, 

\  being  confessedly  written  "in  the  French  Manner."-^  Both 
are  pseudo-historical,  entirely  in  rime,  with  few  characters  and 
incidents,  no  touch  of  comedy,  almost  no  action,  and  the  unities 
much  in  evidence.  A  conflict  between  love  and  honor,  or  rather 
friendship,  lies  at  the  bottom  of  each  piece,  and  the  latter  of 
course  prevails.  In  the  earlier  play  Owen  Tudor  nobly  re- 
nounces his  love  in  favor  of  his  king;  and  in  the  "Black 
Prince "  Lord  Delaware,  whose  successful  rival  is  his  fast 
friend,  accepts  the  inevitable  with  equal  heroic  grace. 

Likewise,  among  the  heroic  plays  of  Sir  Robert  Howard 
are  one  or  two  of  related  interest  to  tragicomedy.  The  "  V^estaP^ 
Virgin"  (1665)  has  the  same  peculiar  technic  earlier  noticed 
in  Suckling's  "  Aglaura."-*^  Equipped  with  two  fifth  acts,  the 
play  may  be  a  tragedy  or  tragicomedy  at  will.-^.  In  the  latter 
case,  the  alteration  begins  at  the  close  of  Act  IV  with  the  ex- 
planatory note,  "  Thus  it  was  Acted  the  Comical  way  " ;  and 
accordingly,  the  general  slaughter  of  good  and  bad  alike  is 
reduced  to  the  killing  of  one  villain,  while  the  other  is  allowed 
to  repent,  and  the  three  models  of  heroism  and  friendship  are 
happily  joined  to  ladies  of  equal  nobility.    As  usual,  the  play 

^  See  Orrery's  letter  to  a  friend,  Dodsley's  ed.  (1739),  I,  p.  v.  (Dodsley 
has  mistaken  the  Black  Prince  for  Henry  V.)  This  play  was  probably 
written  before  1662,  but  not  acted  until  1664,  when  it  proved  very 
popular.  For  a  monograph  on  the  author  and  his  plays,  see  Ed.  Siegert, 
Roger  Boyle,  Earl  of  Orrery  und  seine  Dramen  ziir  Geschichte  des  heroi- 
schen  Dramas  in  England.     Weiner  Beitrdge  sur  Eng.  Phil.  (1906),  XXIII. 

^  Above,  p.  145. 

^  Compare  a  contemporary  instance  of  the  same  thing  recorded  by  the 
prompter  Downes  in  his  Roscius  Anglicanus  (1708),  p.  22:  "The  Tragedy 
of  Romeo  and  Juliet,  was  made  sometime  after  (after  1662)  into  a  Tragi- 
comedy, by  Mr.  James  Hoivard,  he  preserving  Romeo  and  Juliet  alive ; 
so  that  when  the  Tragedy  was  Reviv'd  again,  'twas  Play'd  Alternately, 
Tragical  one  Day,  and  Tragicomical  another ;  for  several  Days  together." 
This  Shaksperian  alteration  was  never  printed.  The  Restoration  fondness 
for  remodeling  old  tragedies  in  this  way  is  again  exemplified  by  Nahum 
Tate's  alteration  of  King  Lear  (acted  1681),  and  Waller's  contribution  of  a 
new  fifth  act  to  the  Maid's  Tragedy  in  1690  (Genest,  I,  337).  See  below, 
p.  180. 


165 

is  mostly  in  rime,  and  comic  admixture  is  strictly  barred: 
customs  which  the  author  takes  pains  to  defend  in  his  well- 
known  preface  to  the  edition."^  In  regard  to  the  latter  prac- 
tise, he  admits  that  the  earlier  English  playwrights  have 
usually  interwoven  mirth  and  sadness  in  their  plays,  and  that 
such  a  variety  is  defendable  by  the  example  of  nature,  but  he' 
himself  is  convinced,  "  That  it  is  most  proper  to  keep  the 
Audience  in  one  entire  disposition  both  of  Concern  and  Atten- 
tion " ;  and,  moreover,  tho  the  mixture  of  contraries  may  be 
possible  in  Nature,  it  is  not  so  fit  for  presentation — "  an  entire 
Connexion  being  the  natural  Beauty  of  all  Plays. "-^ 

This  rigid  severance  of  tragedy  and  comedy,  which  was  a 
prominent  part  of  the  dramatic  creed  of  such  men  as  the  Earl 
of  Orrery  and  Sir  Robert  Howard,  naturally  involved  no 
recognition  on  their  part  of  a  genre  of  tragicomedy.  Conse- 
quently, plays  of  these  writers  were  styled  either  tragedies  or 
comedies  according  as  they  fulfilled  certain  proprieties  of  con- 
tent and  form  recognized  by  classical  precept,  rather  than  for 
any  other  reason.  Thus,  Howard's  later  "  Great  Favorite, 
Or,  the  Duke  of  Lerma "  (1668)  is  another  "Tragedy"  of 
approved  style,  written  in  rime  and  verse,  and  presenting  a 
lofty  and  dignified  subject,  which  has  its  foundation  in  con- 
temporary Spanish  history.  But  there  is  no  tragic  catastrophe. 
The  Great  Favorite  saves  himself  from  his  enemies  by  adopt- 
ing a  Cardinal's  habit;  and  we  are  to  understand  that  his 
daughter  Maria  will  reconsider  her  resolve  to  become  a  nun 
and  eventually  marry  the  young  king.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
same  author's  "  Blind  Lady"  (1660)  and  "  Surprizal  "  (1665) 
were  called  "  Comedies  " ;  but  both  offer  more  seriousness  than 
Orrery's  "  Henry  V  "  or  the  "  Black  Prince,"  particularly  the 
"  Surprizal,"  in  which  an  unregenerate  villain  provides  plenty 
of  tragic  possibilities. ^° 

One  very  important  result,  so  far  as  tragicomedy  is  con- 

^  Preface  to  Four  Nczv  Plays,  1665.  Spingarn,  Critical  Essays  of  the 
Seventeenth  Century   (1908),  II,  97. 

'^Ibid.,  II,  100. 

^°  Both  the  Great  Favorite  and  the  Snrpriaal  were  listed  as  tragicomedies 
by  Langbaine.     The  Blind  Lady  was  evidently  never  acted  (Genest,  X,  135). 


166 

cerned,  of  this  determination  of  dramatic  species  according 
to  the  new  criteria  of  French  classicism  deserves  to  be  briefly 
recorded  at  this  point,  altho  its  elaboration  belongs  to  the 
later  pages.  Restoration  tragicomedy,  beset  on  the  one  hand 
by  an  heroic  play  of  double  catastrophe,  and  on  the  other  by 
an  heroic  "  tragedy  "  of  happy  ending,  into  both  of  which  it 
had  imparted  its  vitality,  now  becomes  mainly  limited  in  cur- 
rent notion  to  a  play  of  double  plot,  part  comic  and  part 
romantic — a  change  of  opinion  that  will  be  evident  enough  when 
we  come  to  consider  the  tragicomedies  of  Dryden  and  the 
various  critical  dicta  of  the  period  on  the  mixed  species.  For 
the  present  it  remains  to  chronicle  one  final  point  of  contact 
between  tragicomedy  and  the  heroic  drama. 

Only  three  other  plays  are  necessary  to  complete  the  con- 
nexion of  our  subject  with  the  pure  heroic  species.  Of  these, 
the  "Amazon  Queen"  (1667)  by  Jo.  Weston,  and  Airs. 
Boothby's  "  Marcelia  "  (1669)  were  written  as  tragicomedies, 
and  the  "Siege  of  Babylon"  (1677)  of  Samuel  Pordage, 
which  could  have  borne  the  title  with  equal  propriety,  for  some 
reason  was  left  unclassified.  The  first  and  last  belong  to  a 
class  of  Amazon  plays  that  seem  to  have  had  a  great  vogue 
in  England  at  this  time,  due  apparently  to  current  French 
romance.^^     Both  plays  introduce  a  number  of  the  same  char- 

*'  The  Amazon  Queen,  in  fact,  was  never  acted,  because  the  author  had 
heard  of  two  other  plays  on  the  same  subject  intended  for  the  stage.  The 
prevalence  of  the  species  is  again  attested  by  an  obvious  reference  in  the 
Siege  of  Babylon  to  a  contemporary  tragedy  of  similar  theme.  In  the 
Epilog  Statira  says : 

At  one  House,  I  am,  by  Roxana,  slain, 

But  see,  at  this,  I  am  alive  again. 
Indeed,  two  other  tragicomedies  of  the  period  are  Amazon  plays:  The 
Women's  Conquest  (1671)  by  Ed.  Howard  (see  below,  p.  176)  and  an 
undated  anonymous  production,  called  The  Female  Rebellion.  This  last, 
which  was  printed  for  the  first  time  in  1872  from  a  MS.  in  the  Hunterian 
Museum  at  Glasgow,  is  a  medley  of  rime,  verse  and  prose,  presenting  both 
comic  and  heroic  characters,  and  centers  on  an  insurrection  of  Amazon 
generals  against  their  Queen,  The  latter  and  her  lover,  a  captive  Scythian 
King,  are  of  heroic  cast,  and  in  the  end  are  united  after  the  revolt  has 
collapsed.  The  piece  is  assigned  to  the  latter  part  of  Charles  II's  reign. 
See  ed.  by  A.  S.  (Alexander  Smith),  Glasgow,  1872. 


167 

acters,  including  Thalestris,  Queen  of  the  Amazons.  Other 
similarities  are  marked.  Both  are  completely  in  rimed  verse, 
devoid  of  any  comic  touch,  and  the  theme  of  each  is  the 
omnipresent  love  and  honor,  in  which  rivalries  of  many  sorts 
absorb  the  attention.  If  rivals  in  love  are  friends,  friendship 
always  prevails,  and  a  rivalry  in  generosity  sets  in  until  some 
compromise  relieves  the  situation.  In  the  "  Amazon  Queen  " 
ladies  instead  of  men  are  the  rivals.  Thalestris,  Roxana  and 
Statira  are  the  suitors  for  the  hand  of  King  Alexander;  and 
when  the  last  named  is  finally  successful,  the  haughty  Amazon 
Queen  resigns  her  love  with  a  serenity  only  known  to  the 
heroic  drama.  The  "  Siege  of  Babylon "  has  a  far  more 
harrowing  theme,  but  is  equally  trite  in  motive  and  device. 
The  main  plot  repeats  the  familiar  situation  where  the  mutual 
love  of  the  hero  and  heroine  is  crossed  by  the  passion  of  a 
wicked  queen  for  the  former.  Both  in  turn  are  given  the 
choice  of  death  or  renunciation  of  their  love,  and  both  eagerly 
embrace  death.  But  they  are  not  put  to  the  test.  The  upshot 
is  that  the  course  of  events  preserves  and  unites  the  lovers; 
and  the  unsuccessful  queen,  mad  with  jealousy,  is  borne  raving 
from  the  stage.  "  Marcelia,"  on  the  other  hand,  both  in  con- 
tent and  form  is  somewhat  less  an  heroic  play  of  the  new 
fashion.  It  is  written  in  prose  as  well  as  rime,  and,  moreover, 
has  a  slight  admixture  of  comedy.  Plot,  characters  and  situa- 
tions are  all" reminiscent  of  the  old  style  tragicomedy  in  which 
a  treacherous  favorite  is  the  guiding  spirit.  A  king,  in  a  mad 
infatuation,  deserts  his  own  mistress  and  woos  the  betrothed 
of  his  subject,  but  in  the  end,  when  the  villain  has  been  un- 
masked and  banished,  he  repents  his  action,  unites  the  lovers, 
and  returns  to  the  first  lady. 

In  fact,  the  rimed  heroic  type,  for  all  its  regularity  of  form 
and  regard  for  classical  precept,  exhibits  a  constant  repetition 
of  tlie  familiar  traits  of  earlier  tragicomedy.  Both  "  Marcelia  " 
and  the  "  Siege  of  Babylon  "  introduce  in  the  denouement  the 
old  effective  device  of  the  return  to  life  of  supposed  victims 
of  villainy.  And  most  of  the  character  types,  situations  and 
motives  that  recur  in  the  heroic  species  in  general  are  borrowed 
direct,  or  only  developed,  from  English  romantic  tragicomedy. 


168 

During  the  period  of  its  heyday,  the  new  heroic  fashion  com- 
pletely supplanted  tragicomedy  in  popular  favor,  and  on  its 
decline  in  the  late  seventies,  the  once  dominant  English  stage 
type  experienced  no  revival.  But  the  influence  of  the  transient 
vogue  is  noticeable  in  almost  all  the  relatively  few  tragi- 
comedies that  fall  either  within  or  after  the  years  of  its  chief 
supremacy;  an  influence  seen  best  perhaps  in  Dryden's  plays 
of  the  species.  Even  the  "  Rival  Ladies,"  it  will  be  remem- 
bered, was  partly  in  rime,  tho  in  all  else  closely  identified  with 
English  tradition.  "  Secret  Love,"  which  followed  in  1667. 
while  by  no  means  an  heroic  play  of  the  new  style,  is  clearly 
related  to  the  species ;  and  Dryden's  three  later  tragicomedies 
follow  a  similar  formula.  These  last,  which  appeared  at  wide 
intervals  of  his  later  dramatic  career,  are  all  antedated  by  the 
"Essay  of  Dramatic  Poesy"  (1668},  to  which  some  attention 
is  due  before" "tonsidermg  the  author's  contribution  to  the 
form. 

As  this  document  contains  the  first  discussion  of  tragi- 
comedy in  formal  English  criticism  since  Sidney,  its  historical 
importance  to  the  subject  is  evident  at  once.  j\Iore  imme- 
diate interest  lies  in  the  fact  that  it  also  introduces  us  to  con- 
temporary critical  opinion,  both  pro  and  con,  as  to  the  prac- 
tise. Among  the  points  at  issue  in  current  controversy,  the 
mingling  of  tragic  and  comic  is  represented  as  one  of  the 
foremost.  Thus,  in  the  debate  as  to  the  relative  merits  of  the 
old  English  drama  and  French  practise,  Lisideius,  the  cham- 
pion of  the  latter,  condemns  tragicomedy  as  an  English  ab- 
normality, which  violates  the  unity  of  action  in  interweaving 
two  separate  and  distinct  plots  in  the  same  play,  to  the  confu- 
sion of  the  audience  and  the   dissipation  of  their  interest.^- 

'-Practically  the  same  objection  as  Sir  Robert  Howard  in  his  Preface  to 
Four  New  Plays  (1665)  had  earlier  urged  against  the  mingling  of  kinds 
(Cp.  above,  p.  165).  Another  contemporary  judgment  concerning  this 
particular  violation  of  decorum  is  expressed  in  Milton's  preface  to  Samson 
Agonistes  (1671),  where  the  author  speaks  of  "the  Poets  error  of  inter- 
mixing Comic  stuff  with  Tragic  sadness  and  gravity,  or  introducing  trivial 
and  vulgar  persons:  which  by  all  judicious  hath  bin  counted  absurd,  and 
brought  in  without  discretion,  corruptly  to  gratifie  the  people."  Cp.  also 
Edward  Phillips,  who  in  his  Preface  to   Thcatnim  Poetarum   (1675)    con- 


169 

The  form,  thus  weighed  in  the  balance  of  classical  canon,  is 
summarily  dismissed  with  the  excommunication :  "  There  is 
no  theatre  in  the  world  has  any  thing  so  absurd  as  the  EnglisR 
tragi-comedy ;  'tis  a  drama  of  our  own  invention,  and  the 
fashion  of  it  is  enough  to  proclaim  it  so;  here  a  course  of 
mirth,  there  another  of  sadness  and  passion,  a  third  of  honour, 
and  fourth  a  duel :  thus,  in  two  hours  and  a  half,  we  run 
through  all  the  fits  of  Bedlam. "^'^  On  the  other  hand,  Dryden 
himself,  in  the  person  of  Neandgr,  not  only  readily  controverts 
the  arguments  of  his  opponent,  but  boldly  exalts  the  disputed 
form  above  all  others.  The  transition  from  gravity  to  mirth, 
he  argues,  far  from  being  either  a  strain  on  the  attention  or 
a  check  to  enjoyment,  is  a  natural  and  beneficial  change. 
"  Does  not  the  eye  pass  from  an  unpleasant  object  to  a  pleas- 
ant in  a  much  shorter  time  than  is  required  to  this?  and  does 
not  the  unpleasantness  of  the  first  commend  the  beauty  of  the 
latter?"  Continued  seriousness  is  oppressive,  and  the  inter- 
spersed mirth  furnishes  the  necessary  dramatic  counterpart. 
"  I  must  therefore  have  stronger  arguments,"  he  concludes, 
*'  ere  I  am  convinced  that  compassion  and  mirth  in  the  same 
subject  destroy  each  other;  and  in  the  mean  time  cannot  but 
conclude,  to  the  honour  of  our  nation,  that  we  have  invented, 
increased,  and  perfected  a  more  pleasant  way  of  writing  for 
the  stage,  than  was  ever  known  to  the  ancients  or  moderns  of 
any  nation,  which  is  tragicomedy."^* 

This  daring  assertion,  the  first  real  defense  of  tragicomedy 
in  English  criticism,  shows  Dryden  both  the  champion  of  ro- 
mantic license  in  an  age  of  dawning  classical  severity  and  the 
ardent  exponent  of  English  tradition.  Later,  indeed,  he  relin- 
quished this  position  in  theory;  but  in  1668  the  dominant  in- 
fluence on  the  author  of  the  "  Rival  Ladies "  and  "  Secret 
Love  "  was  clearly  the  school  of  Shakspere  and  Beaumont  and 
Fletcher. 

demns  "  that  Linsie-u!Oolsie  intermixture  of  Comic  mirth  with  Tragic 
seriousness,  which  being  so  frequently  in  use,  no  wonder  if  the  name  of 
Play  be  apply'd  without  distinction  as  well  to  Tragedy  as  Comedy."  See 
Spingarn,  I,  208  ;  II,  270. 

^^  W.  P.  Ker,  Essays  of  John  Dryden,  I,  57. 

^Ibid.,  I,  69-70. 


170 

Before  leaving  the  "  Essay,"  it  may  be  worth  noting  that  the 
arguments  set  forth  both  for  and  against  the  practise  of  tragi- 
comedy are  substantially  those  urged  by  the  earlier  critics  and 
defenders  of  the  Spanish  national  drama;  an  observation  that 
gives  some  support  to  the  position  that  Dryden  was  very  pos- 
sibly indebted  to  Spanish  precedent   for  some  of  his  critical 
/  theory.^^    Noteworthy  again  is  the  fact  that  tragicomedy  is  not 
debated  from  the  standpoint  of  the  happy  ending,  but  of  the 
unrelated  mixture  of  gravity  and  mirth.     True,  practically  all 
romantic  tragicomedies  of  the  past  had  admitted  comic  parts, 
which  had  often  even  attained  the  proportions  of  a  well  devel- 
oped sub-plot  ;^'^  but  this  feature  was  hardly  more  characteristic 
of  the  intermediate  species  than  it  was  of  tragedy.     With  the 
advent  of  the  rimed  heroic  "  tragedy,"  however,  which  omitted 
all   comedy  and   which  could  end  happily  or  unhappily,   the 
/critical  conception  of  tragicomedy,  as  already  noted,  seems  to 
I   have  become  restricted  to  a  play  of  double  plot,  one  serious 
\   and   one    comic,   the    former   of    course   ending   successfully. 
This,  at  any  rate,  is  the   formula  for  the  type  that  Dryden 
inaugurated   in   his   own   practise   with   "  Secret   Love "   and 
*^dhered  to  in  his  later  career.     With  these  plays  we  are  now 

concerned. 

•       Beside  the  "  Rival   Ladies  "  already  considered,  Dryden's 

contribution    to   tragicomedy    consists    of    four    other    plays : 

"Secret    Love"     (1668),    "Marriage    a-la-Mode "     (1673), 

\"  Spanish  Friar"  (1681),  and  "Love  Triumphant"   (1693). 

These  four  plays — tho  produced  at  wide  intervals  stretching 

over  a  period  of  twenty-five  years,  during  which  the  author's 

dramatic   views   had   undergone   a   complete   revolution    from 

those  stated  in  the  "  Essay  " — are  practically  alike  in  materials 

.     and  method  of  construction.     The  distinguishing  trait  of  each 

I     is  the  double  plot,  one  serious  or  heroic  and  the  other  humor- 

\    ous,  the  twcT  oErty^supcrficially  connected  and  usually  giy:eii 

'°  See  W.  P.  Ker,  Essays  of  John  Dryden,  I,  p.  xxxvi ;  cp.  also  Alfred 
Morel-Fatio,  Les  Dcfcnseurs  de  la  Comedia  (Bulletin  Hispanique,  1902, 
IV),  pp.  31-6. 

'"  Cp.  Spanish  Curate,  Fool  zvould  be  a  Favorite,  City  Night-Cap,  etc., 
all  of  which  are  named  from  the  comic  plots. 


171 

about  equal  prominence,  the  serious  scenes  in  verse  alternating 
with  the  comic  in  prose.  In  the  romantic  plots  heroic  elements 
combine  with  the  conventional  features  of  traditional  tragi- 
comedy. Love  is  always  the  central  interest,  ever  beset  by 
opposing  forces  of  many  sorts,  while  in  the  background  king- 
doms are  tottering  and  war  is  imminent.  The  characters  are  all 
aristocrats — tyrant  kings,  love-lorn  queens,  heroes  of  surpass- 
ing valor  and  nobility,  heroines  torn  with  love  and  duty,  un- 
successful rivals,  and  the  other  type  personages  necessary  to 
fill  out  the  cast.  Quick  changes  of  fortune  keep  the  action 
bustling  and  the  outcome  in  the  balance.  The  hero  may  be 
now  imprisoned  and  the  next  moment  dethroning  the  tyrant; 
while  sudden  revelations  of  identity,  conversions  of  character, 
and  happy  discoveries  furnish  a  full  quota  of  surprises. 
Events  never  culminate  in  a  catastrophe.  In  the  end  all  are 
reconciled :  a  contest  of  arms  may  resolve  into  a  contest  of 
magnanimity,  unsuccessful  love  is  resigned  to  its  fate,  and  the 
hero  and  heroine  are  happily  joined. 

Constant  repetition  of  motive  and  situation  is  a  distinctive 
feature  of  the  serious  parts  of  these  plays.  The  stock  elements 
of  heroic  drama  recur  again  and  again  in  all ;  and  in  "  Mar- 
riage a-la-Mode  "  and  "  Love  Triumphant "  the  plots  them- 
selves are  little  more  than  repetitions.  In  both  plays  love  is 
crossed  first  by  parental  interference  and  next  by  honor;  the 
hero  is  first  thought  to  be  the  King's  son  and  later  is  discovered 
to  be  of  another  royal  line;  both  heroines  place  duty  to  father 
above  love  for  the  hero;  and  in  each  case  an  insurrection 
ushers  in  the  denouement.  The  other  two  tragicomedies  as 
well  exhibit  many  of  the  same  features,  always  an  insurrection 
and  always  a  moral  struggle  between  love  and  some  form  of 
honor.  In  the  "  Spanish  Friar  "  when  the  young  hero  learns 
that  the  deposed  king,  whose  murder  his  newly  wedded  wife 
has  sanctioned,  is  his  own  father,  he  is  torn  by  a  whirlwind  of 
conflicting  emotions: 

Love,  justice,  nature,  pity,  and  revenge. 
Have  kindled  up  a  wildfire  in  my  breast. 
And  I  am  all  a  civil  war  within ! 

But  the  disclosure  that  the  king  still  lives  happily  solves  his 


172 

moral  dilemma.    And  again,  in  "  Secret  Love,"  when  the  hero 
discovers  that  the  IMaiden  Queen  cherishes  a  secret  and  ardent 
passion  for  him,  a  conflict  between  love  and  duty  results — 
love  for  his  betrothed  and  duty  toward  his  sovereign;  but 
the  struggle  ends  with  the  Queen  herself,  the  author's  "  great 
and  absolute  pattern  of  honour,"  nobly  resigning  in  favor  of 
her  humble  rival.     In  short,  there  is  little  in  character,  senti- 
ment or  plot  that  is  not  directly  traceable  to  heroic  drama  or 
romantic  tragicomedy. 
r      Turning  now  for  a  moment  to  the  comic  admixture  in  these 
'    plays — which  figures  so  prominently  in  the  author's  theory 
of  tragicomedy — we  find  that  it  is  not  only  equally  elaborate 
?    with  the  serious  portion,  but  in  one  or  two  instances  even  fur- 
nishes  the   main   interest.     Both   the   "  Spanish   Friar "   and 
""  Marriage  a-la-Mode  "  take  their  titles  from  the  comic  plot  f 
["and  in  the  latter  this  part  is  so  obviously  the  chief  concern 

' ^that  the^play  itself  is  termed  a  "Comedy."^*     Certainly  in 

j  these  two  plays,  at  least,  the  lighter  portions  have  the  better 
claim  to  merit.  Both  Melantha,  the  affected  lady,  and  Domi- 
nick,  the  rascally  friar,  are  telling  satires  of  contemporary 
application,  and  the  latter  is  generally  rated  as  one  of  the  best 
humorous  creations  of  Restoration  comedy  of  manners.  These 
comic  plots  are  all  concerned  with  love  intrigues,  clever  but 
coarse,  carried  on  between  gallants,  maids  of  honor,  and  profli- 
gates and  gulls  of  one  sort  or  another.  As  stated  above,  the 
two  plots  are  but  indifferently  united  and  each  is  conducted  to 
/an  independent  conclusion.  Dryden,  indeed,  prides  himself 
'  on  the  skillful  manner  with  which  he  has  tied  the  conflicting 
interests  in  the  "  Spanish  Friar,"  and  perhaps  more  ingenuity 
is  displayed  in  that  case  than  in  the  others  f^  but  at  best  the 
juncture  is  a  perfunctory  one.     The  two  casts  may  be  taken 

^  The  sub-title  of  the  Spanish  Friar,  called  the  Double  Discovery,  refers 
to  the  serious  plot. 

^  Again  Langbaine,  writing  a  few  years  later,  takes  exception  to  this 
denomination  :  "  This  Play  tho'  stil'd  in  the  Title-page  a  Comedy,  is  rather 
a  Tragi-Comedy,  and  consists  of  two  different  Actions;  the  one  Serious, 
the  other  Comtek,  both  borrow'd  from  two  Stories  which  the  Author  has 
tackt  together."      Dramatick  Poets  (1691),  p.  166.      Cp.  above,  p.  163. 

''See  dedication  to  the  Spanish  Friar;  cp.  also  preface  to  Don  Sebastion. 


173 

from  the  same  court,  and  they  usually  have  one  or  two  char- 
acters in  common,  a  courtier  or  a  soldier  who  may  be  the 
dependent  or  relative  of  the  hero  of  the  serious  plot,  and  comes 
to  his  aid  in  time  of  need.     Thus,  Carlos,  one  of  the  colonels 

-  prominent  in  the  comic  plot  of  "  Love  Triumphant,"  heads 
the  revolt  that  overthrows  the  tyrant  king  and  places  Alphonsus 
in  power ;  and  the  connexion  in  the  "  Spanish  Friar  "  is  some- 
what similar.  This  exaltation  of  the  comic  plot  in  tragicomedyj'Ny 
its  practical  severance  from  the  serious  interest,  and  the  part  it  .. 
plays  in  the  critical  conception  of  the  form,  are,  in  fact,  the 
/  chief  innovations  that  the  Restoration  introduces  to  the  genre,    \ 

I  all  of  which  are  seen  to  best  advantage  in  Dryden's  work.*°^^/^ 
Tho  Dryden  cultivated  tragicomedy  periodically  thruout  his 
dramatic  career,  it  must  be  remembered  that  his  attitude 
toward  the  type  changed  diametrically  in  his  later  years  from 
that  enunciated  in  the  "  Essay."  After  "  Marriage  a-la- 
Mode  "  in  1673,  his  ideas  of  dramatic  art  began  to  undergo  a 
gradual  revolution  to  the  classic  point  of  view,  which  Rapin, 
Boileau  and  Bossu  were  proclaiming  in  France  and  Rymer  in 
England ;  so  that  the  author  of  the"  Spanish  Friar  "  and  "  Love 
Triumphant"  was  no  longer  the  ardent  champion  of  tragi- 
comedy and  romantic  license  of  earlier  years,  but  a  complete 
convert  to  classic  theory.  In  the  "Grounds  of  Criticism  in 
Tragedy"  (1679),  which  proclaims  this  change  of  standpoint, 
appears  a  direct  retraction  of  his.,  ^jrevious  dictum  on  tragi- 
comedyT  "Two  different  independent  actions  distract  the  at-  j 
tention  and  concernment  of  the  audience,  and  consequently  } 
destroy  the  attention  of  the  poet;  if  his  business  be  to  move 
terror  and  pity,  and  one  of  his  actions  be  comical,  the  other 
tragical,  the  former  will  divert  the  people,  and  utterly  make 
void  his  greater  purpose."*^  And  on  these  grounds  he  con-j 
demns  his  own  "  Marriage  a-la-Mode." 

*"  The  Comical  Revenge:  or,  Love  in  a  Tub  (1664)  by  George  Etherege 
may  be  mentioned  in  connexion  with  Dryden's  tragi-comedies  as  a  similar 
composition  of  combined  comic  and  romantic  plot,  altho  its  contemporary 
rating  was  always  as  a  comedy. 

"And  later  in  the  same  essay:  "  He  who  treats  of  joy  and  grief  together 
is  in  a  fair  way  of  causing  neither  of  those  effects."  W.  P.  Ker,  I,  208, 
223. 


174 

From  this  time  on  Drydcn's  critical  attitude  toward  tragi- 
comedy, or  any  mingling  of  kinds,  continues  to  be  one  of  con- 
demnation. It  is  an  ill-ordered  practise,  yet  it  pleases  popular 
taste;  and  this  is  his  excuse  for  his  own  continued  cultivation 
of  the  form.  His  very  next  play  was  the  "  Spanish  Friar,"  a 
flagrant  violation  of  his  new  critical  tenets.  But,  as  he  states 
in  the  dedication,  "  For  this  time  I  satisfied  my  own  humour, 
which  was  to  tack  two  plays  together;  and  to  break  a  rule  for 
the  pleasure  of  variety.  The  truth  is,  the  audience  are  grown 
weary  of  continued  melancholy  scenes ;  and  I  dare  venture  to 
prophesy,  that  few  tragedies  except  those  in  verse  shall  succeed 
in  this  age,  if  they  are  not  lightened  with  a  course  of  mirth. 
For  the  feast  is  too  dull  and  solemn  without  the  fiddles. "*- 
The  double  plot  of  "  Love  Triumphant,"  as  w' ell,  the  author 
admits,  cannot  be  defended  by  reason  or  authority,  but  it  is  "  a 
fault,"  he  adds,  "  which  I  would  often  practise,  if  I  were  to 
write  again,  because  it  is  agreeable  to  the  English  genius. 
We  love  variety  more  than  any  other  nation ;  and  so  long  as  the 
audience  will  not  be  pleased  without  it,  the  poet  is  obliged  to 
humour  them."*^  After  "  Love  Triumphant,"  Dryden  wrote 
no  more  plays,  yet  in  his  ''  Parallel  of  Poetry  and  Painting  " 
(1695)  he  returned  again  to  the  subject  of  tragicomedy,  but 
only  to  reiterate  his  objections  to  its  hybrid  nature.     "  Our 

*' Ibid.,  I,  249.  Cp.  similar  sentiment  in  the  preface  to  Don  Sebastian 
1690)  :  "  I  have  observed,  that  the  English  will  not  bear  a  thorough 
tragedy ;  but  are  pleased  that  it  should  be  lightened  with  underparts  of 
mirth";  also  the  preface  to  Clcomones  (1692):  "After  all,  it  was  a  bold 
attempt  of  mine,  to  write  upon  a  single  plot,  unmixed  with  comedy ;  which, 
though  it  be  the  natural  and  true  way,  yet  is  not  to  the  genius  of  the 
nation."     Scott-Saintsbury  ed.,  VII,  316;  VIII,   220. 

Dryden,  writing  in  later  years,  repeated  his  objections  to  the  double 
plot  structure  of  the  Spanish  Friar:  "Neither  can  I  defend  my  Spanish 
Friar,  as  fond  as  otherwise  I  am  of  it,  from  this  imputation  (Gothic  style)  : 
for  though  the  comical  parts  are  diverting,  and  the  serious  moving,  yet 
they  are  of  an  unnatural  mingle :  for  mirth  and  gravity  destroy  each 
other,  and  are  no  more  to  be  allowed  for  decent  than  a  gay  widow  laughing 
in  a  mourning  habit."  And  later  in  the  same  essay :  "  The  faults  of  that 
drama  are  in  the  kind  of  it,  which  is  tragi-comedy.  But  it  was  given  to  the 
people:  and  I  never  writ  anything  for  myself  but  Antony  and  Cleopatra." 
A  Parallel  .of  Poetry  and  Painting  (1695),  W.  P.  Ker,  II,  147,  152. 

^^  Scott-Saintsbury  ed.,  VIII,  375-6- 


175 

English  tragi-comedy  must  be  confessed  to  be  wholly  Gothic," 
he  writes,  "  notwithstanding  the  success  which  it  has  found 
upon  our  theatre."**  And  later  in  the  "  Discourse  concerning 
the  Original  and  Progress  of  Satire"  (1697),  the  structural 
peculiarity  of  the  species  again  draws  his  comment :  "  In  a  play 
of  the  English  fashion,  which  we  call  a  tragi-comedy,  there 
is  to  be  but  one  main  design ;  and  though  there  be  an  underplot, 
or  second  walk  of  comical  characters  and  adventures,  yet  they 
are  subservient  to  the  chief  fable,  carried  along  under  it,  and 
helping  to  it;  so  that  the  drama  may  not  seem  a  monster 
with  two  heads. "*^  This  last  passage  even  seems  to  indicate 
that  the  author  justified  the  form  provided  there  was  organic 
connexion  and  a  proper  balance  between  the  serious  and  comic 
plots.  At  any  rate,  these  critical  utterances  on  the  subject  are 
all  right  in  line  with  one  tolerably  well  defined  conception  of 
tragicomedy,  illustrated  best  in  Dryden's  own  practise  and  sub- 
stantiated by  other  evidence  of  the  period. 

Dryden's  contribution  to  tragicomedy  is  easily  the  most  con-N. 
siderable  and  important  of  the  period.  No  other  writer,  in 
fact,  seriously  cultivated  the  kind.  The  other  plays  of  the 
title  that  fall  between  1670  and  the  end  of  the  century  form 
a  heterogeneous  group,  representing  almost  as  many  authors 
as  plays,  and  generally  indicative  of  the  steady  decadence  of 
the  form.  The  spirit  of  the  age  called  for  comedy  rather  than 
for  serious  drama;  and  while  tragedy  continued  to  occupy  the 
efforts  of  the  chief  poets,  tragicomedy  as  a  stage  factor  was 
almost  a  negligible  quantity  during  the  last  quarter  of  the 
century,  steadily  dwindling  in  prestige  and  quality  with  each 
succeeding  decade.  This  is  shown  in  part  by  the  fact  that 
the  various  excrescent  forms  of  the  type  almost  double  the 
number  of  proper  tragicomedies.  Some  are  translations  of  ^ 
foreign  models ;  others  are  Elizabethan  alterations,  testifying 
to  the  continued  popularity  of  the  earlier  masters ;  while  the 
Revolution  of  1688  ushered  in  another  outburst  of  political 
tragicomedies,  all  written  for  an  imaginary  stage.  There  re- 
main, then,  beside  the  plays  of  Dryden,  only  about  a  dozen 
miscellaneous  pieces  that  keep  alive  the  tragicomedy  of  past 

**W.  P.  Ker,  II,   146.  ^"Ihid.,  II,  102. 


176 

tradition.  These,  moreover,  rather  defy  classification.  Most 
show  the  hereditary  traits  of  the  species  allied  in  one  way  or 
another  to  Restoration  practise;  and  all  are  of  indifferent 
merit. 

Among  this  last  group  are  a  few  that  offer  some  little  criti- 
cal interest  to  the  subject.  Edward  Howard's  Amazon  tragi- 
comedy, called  the  "Women's  Conquest"  (1671),  is  intro- 
duced by  an  elaborate  preface,  in  which  the  author,  in  his 
discussion  of  the  current  dramatic  questions,  makes  much  the 
same  observations  on  tragicomedy  as  his  contemporaries: — 
It  is  a  two-fold  type,  a  mixture  of  heroic  and  comic  parts, 
and  distinctly  an  English  product.  He  has  given  the  title  to 
his  own  play  after  the  example  of  the  Elizabethans,  whose 
tragicomedies  "are  well  enough  known  to  be  at  this  day 
no  inconsiderable  ornament  and  entertainment  of  the  Stage." 
He  will  not,  however,  attempt  to  justify  the  word,  "Since 
every  Play,  if  strictly  taken,  must  be  either  Tragedy  or 
Comedy,  excluding  Farce."  But  he  wisely  surmises  the  term 
to  be  an  invention  of  former  English  poets  to  denominate 
"  mixt  Plays,"  which  the  heroic  part  exalted  above  the  title 
of  comedy.*"  Howard's  play  itself  unites  in  one  plot  both 
the  serious  and  comic  characters,  all  of  whom  get  into  the 
same  entanglements  by  reason  of  a  strange  Scythian  law 
whereby  a  man  may  divorce  his  wife  at  pleasure.  This  dis- 
crimination against  women  arouses  the  hostility  of  a  neighbor- 
ing Amazon  queen.  War  results :  the  women  are  victorious ; 
the  law  repealed ;  and  all  settled  according  to  heroic  code.*^ 
Somewhat  the  same  manner  of  mixture  is  preserved  in  Ravens- 

**  To  continue  his  remarks  on  the  mixed  species  :  "  I  do  not  find  but  the 
highest  of  our  English  Tragedies  .  .  .  are  at  all  undervalued  by  their 
Authors,  in  being  sweetned  with  mirth,  for  as  all  people  do  not  come 
purposely  to  sympathize  their  passions  with  those  of  the  Plays,  so  some 
will  expect  to  be  diverted  accordingly ;  nor  do  I  believe  that  it  is  less 
natural  (as  some  have  thought)  to  form  a  Play,  that  shall  have  this 
variety  of  Genius,  then  I  do  to  find  of  mankind  some  grave,  reserv'd, 
fierce,  cruel,  others  of  more  aiery  and  pleasant  converse,  to  mingle  humours 
and  affairs  together." 

"  Ed.  Howard  was  also  the  author  of  a  non-extant  Change  of  Crozvns, 
which  Pepys  saw  April  15,  1667,  and  described  as  "a  great  play  and 
serious."     On  this  evidence  Genest  (I,  69)  lists  it  as  a  tragicomedy. 


177 

croft's  "King  Edgar  and  Alfreda  "  (1677),  a  pseudo-histori- 
cal piece,  in  which  the  author  has  introduced  "  a  run  of 
Comedy,  but  not  after  the  manner  of  our  Old  Tragi-Comedies, 
where  one-half  of  the  Play  are  Heroes,  and  the  other  Me- 
chanicks  and  Buffoons."*^  The  serious  interest,  which  con- 
cerns a  love  episode  chronicled  of  King  Edgar,  ends  tragically 
in  fact.  An  elaborately  artificial  denouement  results  in  the 
accidental  killing  of  both  the  Queen  and  Ethelwold,  which, 
however,  clears  the  way  for  the  union  of  the  King  and  Alfreda. 
Still  more  conglomerate  in  character  is  Nathaniel  Lee's 
"Princess  of  Cleve "  (c.  1680-82),  well  described  by  the 
author  in  his  dedication  as  "  this  Farce,  Comedy,  Tragedy,  or 
mere  Play."*^  The  serious  parts  arise  to  real  tragic  pathos, 
while  the  comedy  is  disgustingly  low.  One  death  occurs ;  but 
in  the  end  the  Princess  wins  her  moral  struggle,  and  the 
profligate  gallant,  who  is  the  hero  of  both  plots,  repents  his 
evil  ways. 

Among  the  better  known  playwrights  of  the  day,  Crowne 
and  Wilson  each  made  one  experiment  in  tragicomedy,  while 
Mrs.  Behn  produced  three  plays  of  the  title.  A  generally 
scrambled  character  is  about  the  sole  quality  these  productions 
have  in  common.  "  Juliana,  or  the  Princess  of  Poland " 
(167J),  Crowne's  first  play,  introduces  a  double  romantic  love 
story  in  a  pseudo-historical  setting,  where  two  warring  Polish 
factions  meet  to  elect  a  king,  and  interweaves  comedy  and 
spectacle  in  a  turbulent  action  of  fighting,  rescues  and  sudden 
changes  of  fortune,  all  of  which — barring  the  suicide  of  a 
baffled  Cardinal — ends  in  approved  tragicomic  fashion.  Wil- 
son's "Belphegor"  (1690),  on  the  other  hand,  offers  nothing 
to  substantiate  its  claim  to  the  genre  title.  The  familiar  story 
from  Machiavelli  of  the  Alarriage  of  the  Devil  gives  abundant 
opportunity  for  comedy  and  spectacle,  and  with  it  the  author 
has  united  a  more  dignified  plot;  but  the  action  presents  no_ 

**  See  the  author's  prefaced  Life  of  Edgar,  King  of  the  West  Saxons. 

*°  Printed  1689  without  classification,  but  entered  in  the  Term  Catalogues, 
June,  1697,  as  a  Tragi-Comedy.  This  p5ay  is  one  of  the  many  of  the  period 
founded  on  French  romance. 

13 


178 

serious  interest. ^°  Of  Airs.  Behn's  tragicomedies,  "Forced 
Marriage"  (1671)  and  the  "Young  King"  (c.  1679)  follow 
romantic  tradition,  are  written  in  verse  and  rime,  and  ofifer 
no  particular  departures  from  the  commonplace.  The  plot  of 
the  first  is  confined  to  a  court,  and  the  denouement  is  given  a 
sepectacular  turn  by  the  supposedly  murdered  heroine  perso- 
nating first  her  own  ghost  and  then  her  angel.  In  the  latter, 
love  is  given  its  usual  background  of  war;  the  characters  are 
decidedly  those  of  French  romance;"  and  two  subordinate 
love  plots  are  cleverly  organized  with  the  main  theme.  The 
"  Widow  Ranter  "  ( 1690)  is  different — a  deliberate  mixture 
of  comedy  and  tragedy,  entirely  in  prose  and  topical  in  inter- 
est. The  play  is  primarily  a  satire  on  colonial  misgovernment 
in  Virginia;  while  the  historical  figure  of  Bacon,  the  instiga- 
tor of  Bacon's  Rebellion,  and  an  Indian  Queen  furnish  a 
romantic  interest,  and  their  deaths  a  tragic  catastrophe. 

A  few  other  scattered  and  unimportant  tragicomedies  are  so 
conventional  in  character  and  plot  that  they  might  with  pro- 
priety date  from  the  preceding  age.  Such  a  play  is  an  anony- 
mous "Emilia"   (1672),  a  tragicomedy  of  the  mistaken  iden- 

^  Almost  equally  unentitled  to  the  name  of  tragicomedy  is  the  con- 
temporary Successfitl  Strangers  (1690)  of  Wm.  Mountfort,  a  play  of  love 
intrigue  in  Spanish  fashion,  mostly  in  prose,  and — with  the  exception  of 
one  serious  episode — pure  comedy.  With  it  should  be  mentioned  a  curious 
anomaly  in  the  shape  of  a  religious  tragicomedy  by  Richard  Tuke :  The 
Divine  Comedian  or  the  Right  Use  of  Plays,  Improved,  in  a  sacred  Tragy- 
Comcvdy,  1672,  which  appeared  earlier  the  same  year  under  the  title,  The 
Soul's  Warfare,  comically  digested  into  scenes,  acted  between  the  Soul 
and  her  enonies.  As  these  titles  indicate,  it  is  distinctly  a  moral  pro- 
duction ;  nor  is  it  known  to  have  been  acted.  The  period  also  claims  two 
academic  tragicomedies :  a  later  version  of  the  Bellum  Grammaticale  en- 
titled, The  Warr  of  Grammar  a  Tragick-Comedy  Acted  by  the  Scholars  of 
Cranebrook  School  more  than  once  not  without  Applause.  In  which  the 
whole  vulgar  Grammar  with  something  of  the  Authors  own,  is  festiveously 
handled,  by  Samuel  Hoadley,  1666,  with  a  ms.  copy  of  the  same,  Basileia 
sen  Bellum  Grammaticale  Tragico-Comccdia,  preserved  in  British  Museum, 
Add.  Mss.  22725  (described  by  J.  Nichols,  Lit.  Aiiec.  of  the  i8th.  Cen., 
VIII,  761);  and  a  MS.  play  in  the  Bodleian:  Talpcc ;  sire  Conjuratio 
Papistica.  Tragico-comadia.  Autore  Thom :  Singleton.  Scripta  Febr:  7 
mo.  1688/9. 

"  The  plot  is  founded  mainly  on  the  Clcopatrc  of  Calprenede. 


179 

tity  formula,  given  the  added  feature  of  regularity,  the  author 
expressly  avowing  his  allegiance  to  decorum  and  the  unities.^^ 
Years  later  the  actor  Jos.  Harris  compiled  old  motives  into 
a  tragicomedy  of  the  villainous  favorite  type,  called  "  The 
Mistakes"  (1690).  For  four  tedious  acts  the  arch-intriguer 
disrupts  friendships,  estranges  lovers,  and  hoodwinks  a  Vice- 
roy, and  when  caught  in  the  fifth,  is  so  repentant  that  he  pleads 
for  death  lest  he  work  more  mischief — a  request  that  is  mag- 
nanimously overruled  and  banishment  substituted  in  its  stead. 
To  conclude  the  list  of  these  sporadic  productions  of  tradi- 
tional type,  it  remains  only  to  chronicle  two  anonymous  tragi- 
comedies that  appeared  in  1697:  "The  Triumphs  of  Virtue" 
and  "Timoleon;  or,  the  Revolution,"  both  of  conventional 
design.  In  the  former  the  virtue  of  a  romantic  heroine  con- 
verts a  monarch  from  evil  intentions,  reclaims  a  dissipated 
brother,  and  recalls  a  recreant  lover,  and  the  latter  play  unites 
a  satirical  comic  plot  to  the  serious  theme.  With  these  two 
plays  English  romantic  tragicomedy  practically  passes  off  the 
stage. 

As  previously  stated,  it  was  probably  due  to  the  persistentN* 
popularity  of  the  later  Elizabethans  thruout  the  Restoration 
period  that  tragicomedy  survived,  even  to  the  limited  extent 
indicated  by  the  above  plays,  in  an  age  of  devotion  to  comedy 
and  growing  reaction  against  romance.  Of  the  old  masters,/ 
Shakspere  and  Beaumont  and  Fletcher  continued  to  be  the 
favorites  on  the  later  Restoration  stage;  and  both  in  revivals 
and  alterations  of  their  plays  tragicomedies  shared  promi- 
nently. "  A  King  and  No  King  "  and  "  Philaster  "  especially 
seem  to  have  commended  themselves  to  Restoration  taste, 
in    spite    of    the    lack    of    interest    in    Shakspere's    romantic 

^  In  the  dedication  the  author  says :  "  The  Writing  or  Language,  I  have 
accomodated  to  the  Persons,  Verse;  for  the  more  Heroick,  and  Prose,  for 
the  rest,  with  often  allay  of  this  with  the  other,  to  make  it  more  flexible, 
which  else  would  be  too  stiff."  And  in  an  additional  note :  "  The  Unity 
of  Place  (besides  that  of  Time  and  Persons)  so  exactly  observed,  as  there 
is  never  any  breach  or  breaking  of  the  Scenes,  until  the  end  of  the  Act." 
The  play  had  not  been  acted  when  printed.  The  superscription  bears  the 
words:  Emilia,  a  Tragedy;  but  the  piece  is  correctly  denominated  in  the 
Epilog,  Tragi-Comcdy. 


180 

comedies.  Even  when  Langbainc  wrote  in  1691  both  were 
holding  the  stage  with  great  success  f^  while  the  popularity 
of  "  Philaster"  is  further  attested  by  two  alterations  that  fall 
within  the  later  years  of  the  century.  The  first  of  these,  pre- 
sumably the  work  of  the  Duke  of  Buckingham  about  1683, 
appeared  under  the  suggestive  title  of  "  The  Restauration :  or, 
Right  will  take  Place,"  but  was  evidently  never  acted  and  not 
even  printed  until  1714.^*  With  the  names  of  the  dramatis 
persona  disguised,  an  added  prolog  and  epilog,  and  some  slight 
alterations  in  detail,  the  play  practically  follows  its  original, 
and  seems  free  from  any  more  pointed  political  significance 
than  that  conveyed  by  the  altered  title.  Settle's  revision  in 
1695,  on  the  other  hand,  advertises  "  the  last  two  acts  new 
written ; "  and  by  the  addition  of  some  new  scenes  the  tragic 
action  is  intensified,  but  the  final  denouement  is  unchanged.^^ 
Other  favorites  of  the  time  include  Fletcher's  "  Island  Prin- 
cess," which  gave  rise  to  no  less  than  three  alterations  during 
the  period.^*^  Shakspere's  "  Cymbeline "  was  materially  re- 
vised by  Durfey  and  renamed  the  "  Injured  Princess,  or  the 
Fatal  Wager"  (1682).^"  And  of  related  interest  to  the  sub- 
ject is  Tate's  version  of  "King  Lear"  (1681),  which  ends 
happily ;  while  Waller,  to  please  the  court,  attempted  "  to 
soften  the  rigour  "  of  the  "  Maid's  Tragedy  "  by  a  new  fifth 
act  which  preserves  all  alive.^^ 

"'  Of  these  two  plays  Langbaine  says :  "  King  and  No  King,  a  Tragi- 
comedy, which  notwithstanding  its  Errors  discover'd  by  Mr.  Rymer  in  his 
Criticisms,  has  always  been  acted  with  Applause,  and  has  lately  been  re- 
viv'd  on  our  present  Theatre  with  so  great  success,  that  we  may  justly  say 
with  Horace,  Haec  placuit  seinel,  haec  decies  repetita  placebit.  .  .  . 
Philaster,  or  Love  lies  a  Bleeding:  a  Tragi-Comedy  which  has  always  been 
acted  with  Success ;  and  has  been  the  diversion  of  the  Stage,  even  in  these 
days"  (pp.  210,  213).  The  Humorous  Lieutenant  Langbaine  had  also 
"often  seen  acted  with  Applause"   (p.  209). 

"  For  full  title,  see  Appendix. 

"Genest,  II,  66. 

°°  First  anonymously  in  1669  and  printed  as  a  Comedy;  next  "  Reviv'd 
with  alterations"  by  Nahum  Tate  in  1687;  and  finally  made  into  an  opera 
by  Motteux  in  1699. 

""  Durfey  also  altered  Fletcher's  Sea  Voyage  as  A  Common-Wealth  of 
Women.      A  Play   (1686),  which   omits  all  the  serious  incident. 

""Langbaine,  Dramatick  Poets  (1691),  p.  212.  The  alteration  was  not 
successful. 


181 

To  attempts  of  this  sort  to  improve  upon  old  plays  must  be 
added  a  few  tragicomedies  translated  from  foreign  originals. 
Of  French  cultivators  of  the  species,  Corneille  and  Quinault 
seem  to  have  aroused  the  only  direct  echo  across  the  channel. 
In  the  preceding  era  the  '*  Cid  "  had  made  its  appearance  in 
English  dress,  and  the  eve  of  the  Restoration,  it  will  be  remem- 
bered, had  ushered  in  two  of  Ouinault's  tragicomedies,  the 
work  of  Sir  William  Lower. ^^  Later  translations  from  these 
authors  include  two  more  tragicomedies.  In  1670  a  certain 
John  Dancer  gave  a  faithful  version  of  Corneille's  "  Nico- 
mede,"  and  followed  it  in  1675  with  "  Agrippa,  King  of  Alba: 
or.  The  False  Tiberinus,"  taken  from  Quinault.  Both  plays 
were  acted  successfully  at  Dublin — where,  it  seems,  the 
author  was  in  the  service  of  the  Lord  Lieutenant — and  both 
represent  the  same  type  of  "  regular  "  tragicomedy,  or  tragedy 
of  happy  ending,  which  has  its  English  counterparts  in 
such  plays  as  the  "  Black  Prince  "  and  the  "  Amazon  Queen." 
Two  other  tragicomedies  complete  the  list  of  translations. 
"The  Royal  Cuckold:  or.  Great  Bastard"  (1693),  ^"  evident 
lampoon  on  Lewis  XIV  of  France,"*'  purports  to  be  a  trans- 
lation from  the  German  by  Paul  Vergerius ;  and  the  "  Marshall 
of  Luxembourg,  upon  his  Death-Bed"  (1695)  is  the  title  of 
an  anonymous  version  of  a  contemporary  French  piece. ''^ 
Both  are  reproductions  of  sporadic  and  unimportant  sur- 
vivals of  the  genre  abroad,  and  were  evidently  never  acted. 

Of  even  less  intrinsic  importance  as  drama  is  a  late  group 
of  political  or  pamphlet  tragicomedies  which  furnishes  the 
concluding  aspect  of  the  subject  in  the  Restoration  era.  This 
particular  dramatic  excrescence  of  Commonwealth  times  ap- 
peared again  during  the  political  upheavals  attending  the 
Revolution  of  1688.     The  abdication  of  King  James  and  the 

^*  Above,  p.  154. 

**  Taken  from  a  book  called  the  Secret  History  of  Lewis  XIV  of  France. 
— Biographia  Dramatica. 

®^  Lancaster  records  a  MS.  original  of  this  play  in  the  Bibliotheque 
Nationale,  dated  1700:  Monsieur  le  marcchal  de  Luxembourg  au  lict  de  la 
mart,  tragicomedie  en  cinq  actes  .  .  .  MDCC.  MS.  fr.  2957,  fol.  2^2. 
(The  French  Tragi-Comedy,  p.  151,  note  4.)  The  English  version  dated 
169s  was  reprinted  1710. 


182 

establishment  of  the  new  regime  released  pent-up  Protestant 
hatred  of  the  fallen  King  and  the  Papistry  in  a  series  of  dra- 
matic pamphlets,  most  of  which  were  termed  tragicomedies 
like  their  predecessors  of  Cromwellian  times.  In  fact,  they 
represent  only  a  more  elaborate  form  of  the  same  sort  of 
contemptible  squib  encountered  in  the  earlier  period ;  viru- 
lently partisan  in  spirit,  grossly  satiric  in  tone,  and  purely 
political  in  purpose.  Events  connected  with  the  downfall  of 
the  Stuart  tyranny  and  the  Irish  revolt  are  the  subjects;  pop- 
ular scandals  of  the  late  court  are  aired  at  length ;  the  charac- 
ters of  James  and  the  priests  put  in  the  worst  possible  light ; 
and  the  cruelty  and  cowardice  of  the  Irish  Catholics  exposed 
and  ridiculed.  None,  it  is  safe  to  say,  were  ever  publicly  pre- 
sented. 

In  1690  appeared  a  trilogy  of  "tragicomedies  "  of  this  sort: 
"  The  Bloody  Duke ;  or  the  Adventures  for  a  Crown,"  "  The 
Abdicated  Prince :  or,  the  Adventures  of  Four  Years,"  and 
"  The  Late  Revolution :  or,  the  Happy  Change  "  ; — the  three 
advertised  as  containing  "  a  full  account  of  the  private  In- 
trigues of  the  Two  Last  Reigns,  and  of  all  the  most  remark- 
able Transactions  that  have  hapned  since."*'-  The  first  two 
are  companion  pieces,  professedly  by  the  same  anonymous 
author;  the  scene  of  each  laid  at  the  court  of  "  Alba  Regalis," 
and  the  characters  and  events  so  thinly  masked  as  to  be  readily 
recognized.  James  II  is  the  chief  object  of  attack.  In  the 
first  he  is  the  "  Bloody  Duke,"  whose  crimes  are  represented 
as  culminating  in  the  murder  of  his  own  brother.  King  Charles 
II,  whereby  he  gains  the  crown ;  and  the  "  Abdicated  Prince  " 
is  a  continuation  of  his  infamous  career  as  King,  together  with 
his  downfall.  Other  court  personages  under  disguised  names 
come  in  for  scurrility  and  ridicule,  while  an  honest  Remarquo, 
a  deep  observer  of  the  intrigues  going  on  about  him,  appears 
as  a  sort  of  raisonneur  in  each  piece.  The  "  Late  Revolution  " 
deals  with  events  just  preceding  the  arrival  of  William  of 
Orange,  and  is  levelled  more  particularly  against  Popery. 
Father  Peters  is  the  butt  of  abuse;  his  designs  are  all  frus- 
trated by  the  advance  of  the  Dutch ;  and  he  and  his  party  barely 

**  See  conclusion  of  the  Bloody  Duke. 


183 

escape  destruction  in  the  Protestant  triumph.  All  three  plays 
vie  with  one  another  in  grossness  of  ribaldry  and  lack  of  any 
redeeming  feature.  Others  are  less  personal  but  equally 
partisan.  "  The  Royal  Voyage,  or  the  Irish  Expedition  "  of 
the  same  year,  which  describes  the  famous  defense  of  London- 
derry, has  as  its  chief  end  "  to  expose  the  Perfidious,  Base, 
Cowardly,  Bloody  Nature  of  the  Irish,  both  in  this  and  all 
past  Ages  ;"''^  and  the  "  Siege  and  Surrender  of  Mons  "  ( 1691 ) 
rehearses  the  events  of  that  historic  occurrence  to  disclose 
"  the  Villany  of  the  Priests,  and  the  Intrigues  of  the  French." 
Both  are  equally  undramatic,  consisting  chiefly  of  a  series  of 
scenes  alternating  between  the  opposing  forces ;  while  one  last 
"tragicomedy"  of  the  same  type,  "The  Siege  of  Derry" 
(1692),*'*  pictures  again  the  events  recounted  in  the  "Royal 
Voyage."  To  all  these  half-dozen  anti-Jacobite  tragicomedies 
the  title  name  seems  to  be  applied  with  the  same  indiscrimina- 
tion noticeable  in  the  earlier  anti-Puritan  tracts.  Perhaps  its 
use  in  such  cases  may  be  traced  to  much  the  same  impulse  that 
leads  one  today  to  describe  as  tragicomic  a  South  American 
revolution  or  any  other  upheaval  in  state  or  politics  that 
invites  satire  or  has  its  amusing  or  farcial  side.  A  more  subtle 
explanation  is  baffling.*'^ 

The  steady  decay  of  tragicomedy  during  the  period  reviewed 
has  been  noted  from  time  to  time  in  the  preceding  pages.  A 
summarizing  view  of  the  situation  only  emphasizes  the  extent 

'^  The  name  of  this  play,  as  the  author  notes,  "  relates  to  another  part 
yet  to  come."  The  present  piece  deals  only  with  events  leading  up  to 
William's  Irish  expedition,  concluding  with  the  news  of  his  arrival  at 
Carrickfergus.      Evidently  the  second  part  never  appeared. 

"  There  is  also  record  of  a  tragicomedy  of  the  same  date  called  Piety 
and  Valor;  or  Derry  Dej ended,  which  the  editors  of  the  Biographia 
Dramatica  presume  to  be  only  another  edition  of  this  same  piece. 

^  With  the  six  pamphlet  tragicomedies  considered  above  should  be 
mentioned  one  other  not  in  dramatic  form :  The  Revolter.  A  Trage- 
Comedy  Acted  betzveen  the  Hind  and  Panther,  and  Religio  Laici,  &c. 
London,  Printed  in  the  Year  1687.  As  the  title  suggests,  this  is  a  personal 
satire  on  Dryden's  turning  Papist.  It  is  not  even  in  dialog,  being  made 
up  largely  of  quotations  from  the  two  works  in  question,  whereby  the  au- 
thor sets  forth  the  inconsistencies  of  the  Laureate's  religious  tenets.  See 
Scott-Saintsbury  ed.,  X,  7. 


184 

of  decline  and  the  relative  insignificance  of  the  species  com- 
pared with  its  past  eminence.  In  many  ways  the  position  that 
tragicomedy  occupies  in  Restoration  drama  is  practically  the 
reverse  of  that  attained  before  the  closing  of  the  theatres.  In 
the  earlier  period  the  chief  playwrights  of  the  day  lent  their 
best  efforts  to  the  form,  while  among  later  cultivators  Dryden 
is  the  only  important  figure.  jMoreovcr,  the  body  of  Eliza- 
bethan tragicomedy  is  practically  homogeneous,  whereas  in 
the  latter  period  the  various  irregular  and  excrescent  forms 
of  the  species  far  outnumber  the  output  of  normal  tragi- 
comedies. In  fact,  subtracting  unacted  pieces,  translations, 
redactions,  pamphlets,  and  anomalies  of  all  sorts  from  the 
eighty  odd  tragicomedies  considered  in  the  present  chapter,  we 
find  that  the  remnant  totals  little  more  than  one  third  of  the 
whole.  Causes  of  this  disintegration  have  already  been  sug- 
gested. Tragicomedy  was  distinctly  out  of  harmony  with  the 
classical  spirit  of  the  time,  while  the  rise  of  comedy  and  opera 
and  the  decline  of  romance  no  doubt  aided  in  reducing  the 
form  to  an  outworn  fashion.  Moreover,  the  chief  vitality  of 
the  genre  had  been  absorbed  in  the  rimed  heroic  species,  which 
in  all  but  some  half-dozen  cases  took  the  name  of  tragedy. 
In  short,  of  all  the  formative  influences  of  the  time,  the  con- 
tinued vitality  of  the  Elizabethans  alone  made  for  the  persist- 
ence of  romantic  tragicomedy  on  the  Restoration  stage.  Yet 
amid  continued  revivals  and  redactions  of  former  favorites, 
each  succeeding  decade  brought  forth  fewer  new  plays  of  the 
old  type.  From  1660  English  tragicomedy,  as  an  independent 
dramatic  kind,  was  steadily  on  the  wane,  and  by  1700  it  had 
flickered  completely  out  of  existence. 

The  dominance  of  old  tradition  thruout  this  period  has  been 
marked  from  beginning  to  end.  The  course  of  Restoration 
tragicomedy,  as  described  by  the  legitimate  and  representative 
plays  of  the  type,  is  directly  along  the  lines  inaugurated  by 
Beaumont  and  Fletcher  and  continued  by  Alassinger,  Shirley, 
and  the  other  later  Elizabethans.  The  same  romantic  plots, 
motives,  characters  and  situations  employed  by  these  authors 
reappear  little  altered  in  the  plays  of  Manuche,  Flecknoe, 
William  Killigrcw,   Dryden   and   INIrs.   Behn.     Even  the   few 


185 

tragicomedies  of  heroic  formula  betray  an  almost  equal  de- 
pendence on  previous  example.  What  innovations  the  Res-  ' 
toration  brought  to  the  species  are  innovations  of  form  rather 
than  of  material.  The  keener  critical  sense  of  the  age  is 
evidenced  in  a  curbing  of  romantic  license  and  an  increased 
regularity  of  structure,  even  in  the  tragicomedies  of  old  tradi- 
tion. Some  are  actually  constructed  with  each  unity  strictly 
observed  ;  while  in  many  the  author's  concern  for  critical  pro- 
prieties is  voiced  in  preface  or  prolog  ;  and  the  increased  at- 
tention given  comic  parts,  and  their  severance  from  the  main 
theme — so  noticeable  in  Dry  den — are  results  of  the  same  thing. 
Occasional  lapses  into  rimed  verse,  the  frequent  insertion  of 
operatic  and  spectacular  elements,  and  the  recurrence  of  heroic 
traits,  further  relate  the  type  to  the  distinctive  features  of  the 
period.  With  these  divergencies.  Restoration  tragicomedy  is 
merely  the  decadent  end  of  Elizabethan.  It  is  in  the  realm  of 
criticism  that  the  period  brings  new  interest  to  the  subject. 

Before  the  closing  of  the  theatres,  tragicomedy,  while  un- 
supported by  critical  theory,  was  clearly  recognized  as  a  form 
whose  distinctive  feature  was  the  happy  outcome  of  tragical 
events.  The  Restoration  conception  of  the  species,  however, 
according  to  the  critical  utterances  of  Dryden  and  his  contem- 
poraries, has  been  found  to  consist  primarily  in  the  mingling 
of  tragic  and  comic  parts  in  one  play,  in  apparent  disregard  of 
the  character  of  the  dcnoucuient.  This  departure  in  critical 
attitude  may  be  explained  as  a  natural  result  of  the  dominance 
of  French  ideas  in  Restoration  dramatic  theory.  In  pseudo- 
classic  circles  abroad,  tragedy  and  tragicomedy  could  no  longer 
be  distinguished  by  the  nature  of  the  ending.  Corneille  had 
renamed  his  "Cid"  a  tragedy  on  account  of  its  regular 
features,  and  had  followed  it  with  other  "  tragedies  "of  the 
same  sort.  In  1657  d'Aubignac  had  devoted  a  chapter  of  his 
"  Pratique  du  Theatre  "  to  a  discussion  of  tragicomedy  and 
a  condemnation  of  the  word  in  its  modern  acceptation,  con- 
tending that  by  the  example  of  the  ancients  tragedies  could 
end  happily,  and  that  the  name  of  tragicomedy  for  such  plays 
was  not  only  ill-applied  but  destroyed  their  beauty  by  foretell- 


186 

ing  the  outcome.^"  As  this  treatise  was  translated  into  Eng- 
hsh  in  1684,  it  no  doubt  aided  in  giving  credence  to  the  view 
already  well  established  in  critical  circles  that  the  happy  out- 
come did  not  unmake  a  tragedy  that  fulfilled  the  requirements 
of  material  and  form.  The  "  Black  Prince  "  and  the  "  Great 
Favorite "  were  both  "  tragedies "  to  their  authors.  Rymer 
described  his  own  "Edgar"  (1678)  as  the  "sort  of  Tragedy, 
which  ends  happily;  "^'^  and  Dryden,  speaking  of  "A  King  and 
No  King"  in  his  "Grounds  of  Criticism"  (1679),  asserted 
that  "  if  the  farce  of  Bessus  were  thrown  away,"  the  play 
would  be  "  of  that  inferior  sort  of  tragedies,  which  end  with 
a  prosperous  event."  ^^  That  Dryden  distinguished  this  type 
of  play  from  tragicomedy  is  further  attested  by  the  dedication 
of  the  "  Spanish  Friar,"  in  which,  after  declaring  the  difficulty 
of    conducting    two    contrary  actions  in  one  piece,  he  adds  : 

68 "  We  have  taken  away  the  name  of  Tragedy  from  all  those  Plays  where 
the  Catastrophe  is  happy,  and  without  blood,  though  both  the  Subject  and 
Persons  are  heroick,  and  have  given  them  the  name  of  Tragicomedy's.  .  .  . 

"  I  shall  not  absolutely  fall  out  with  this  name,  but  I  shall  shew  that  it 
is  at  least  superfluous,  since  the  word  Tragedy  signifies  as  well  those  Plays 
that  end  in  joy,  as  those  that  end  in  blood;  provided  still  the  Adventures 
be  of  Illustrious  persons.  And  besides,  the  signification  of  the  word 
Tragicomedy  is  not  true  in  the  sense  we  use  it ;  for  in  those  plays  that  we 
apply  it  to,  there  is  nothing  at  all  Comical,  all  is  grave  and  heroick,  nothing 
popular  and  burlesk. 

"  But  moreover,  this  title  alone  may  destroy  all  the  beauty  of  a  Play, 
which  consisting  particularly  in  the  Peripetia,  or  return  of  Affairs,  it  may 
discover  that  too  soon  ;  since  the  most  agreeable  thing  in  a  Dramma  is, 
that  out  of  many  sad  and  Tragick  appearances,  the  Event  should  at  last 
be  happy,  against  the  Expectation  of  the  whole  Audience ;  but  when  once 
the  word  Tragicomedy  is  prefix'd,  the  Catastrophe  is  presently  known,  and 
the  Audience  the  less  concern'd  with  all  the  Incidents  that  trouble  the 
designs  of  the  chief  Actors ;  so  that  all  their  Pathetick  complaints  do  but 
weakly  move  the  Spectator,  who  is  prepossessed  with  an  Opinion  that  all 
will  end  well ;  whereas  if  we  were  ignorant  of  the  Event,  we  should  tremble 
for  them,  and  be  likewise  more  delighted  with  the  return  of  good  Fortune 
that  should  deliver  them."  The  Whole  Art  of  the  Stage  .  .  .  Written 
in  French  by  the  command  of  Cardinal  Richelieu,  by  Monsieur  Hedelin, 
Abbot  of  Aubignac,  and  nozv  made  English.  London,  1684.  Book  IV, 
Chap.  V,  p.  144-5.      Cp.  above,  pp.  4,  7. 

^Advertisement  to  play. 

"*  W.  P.  Ker,  I,  212.  A  King  and  No  King  had  already  been  considered 
by  Rymer  as  one  of  the  Tragedies  of  the  Last  Age  (1678). 


187 

"p  "  Neither  is  it  so  trivial  an  undertaking,  to  make  a  tragedy  end 
happily  ;  for  'tis  more  difficult  to  save  than  'tis  to  kill.  The 
dagger  and  the  cup  of  poison  are  always  in  a  readiness  ;  but 
to  bring  the  action  to  the  last  extremity,  and  then  by  probable 
means  to  recover  all,  will  require  the  art  and  judgment  of  a 
writer,  and  cost  him  many  a  pang  in  the  performance."  ^^ 

With  the  domain  of  tragicomedy  thus  encroached  upon  by 
tragedy,  the  result  was  that  the  conception  of  the  former  kind 
— in  the  minds  of  the  critical  at  least — became  restricted  to  a 
play  admitting  both  serious  and  comic  parts, — a  feature  which, 
in  fact,  had  always  been  more  or  less  characteristic  of  tragi- 
comedy in  the  past.  Dryden's  four  later  plays  of  the  type  are 
obviously  constructed  with  this  notion  in  mind,  and  the  same 
is  true  of  others  of  the  period.  This  conception,  furthermore, 
while  making  no  provision  for  the  character  of  the  denoue- 
ment, evidently  tacitly  concedes  that  the  serious  plot  shall  end 
happily.  Dryden  is  careful  to  call  his  "  Don  Sebastion " 
(1690)  a  tragedy,  altho  it  admits  as  elaborate  a  comic  plot  as 
the  "  Spanish  Friar  " ;  and  with  only  one  or  two  exceptions 
the  title  name  is  never  applied  in  the  Restoration  period  to 
tragedies  of  comic  admixture.'^*'  From  first  to  last  thruout 
the  period  the  idea  of  tragicomedy  as  a  play  of  two-fold  plot 
is  pretty  consistently  supported  both  in  theory  and  practise,  and 
is  to  be  remembered  as  a  heritage  that  the  age  passed  on  to 
future  criticism.'^^ 

«'  W.  P.  Ker,  I,  249. 

'"The  exceptions  are:  Mrs.  Behn's  Widow  Ranter  (above,  p.  178)  and 
an  alteration  of  the  first  part  of  Shakspere's  Henry  IV  attributed  to  Better- 
ton,  K.  Henry  IV.  with  the  Humours  of  Sir  John  Falstaff.  A  Tragi- 
comedy. As  it  is  Acted  at  the  Theatre  in  Little-Lincolns-Inn-Fields  By  His 
Majesty's  Servants.  Revived,  with  Alterations.  Written  Originally  by  Mr. 
Shakespcar.  London,  1700  (Genest,  II,  219).  Cp.  also  a  later  revision  of 
the  same,  K,  Henry  IV.  zvitli  the  Humours  of  Sir  John  Falstaff.  A  Tragi- 
comedy, By   Mr.   W.  Shakespear.     London,    1721. 

'^  In  connexion  with  this  chapter  it  may  be  noted  that  Francis  Kirk- 
man's  two  play  lists  of  the  period  (the  first  published  with  Tom  Tyler  and 
His  Wife,  1661,  and  the  second  appended  to  John  Dancer's  Nicomede, 
1670)  are  the  first  in  England  to  indicate  the  tragicomedies,  evidently 
following  printed  titles,  but  full  of  blunders  and  generally  inaccurate. 
Langbaine's  first  catalog,  called  Momus  Triumphans  (1688),  copies  Kirk- 
man's  errors  and  is  equally  worthless.  He  however  corrected  most  of  his 
mistakes  of  classification  in  his  later  Dramatick  Poets  (1691). 


CHAPTER  VII 

Concluding  Aspects  of  English  Tragicomedy 

Little  remains  to  be  said  of  tragicomedy  as  an  independent 
dramatic  species  after  its  last  feeble  flickerings  at  the  close 
of  the  seventeenth  century.  The  forces  that  made  for  the 
gradual  extinction  of  the  form  on  the  Restoration  stage  be- 
came only  more  dominant  with  the  advent  of  the  Augustan 
era.  French  classicism,  which  had  secured  a  firm  foothold  in 
the  age  of  Dryden,  gained  a  veritable  triumph  in  the  age  of 
Pope.  The  further  separation  of  tragedy  and  comedy  and 
the  more  painful  observance  of  decorum  and  correctness  thus 
developed,  led  the  eighteenth  century  to  boast  as  great  a  critical 
refinement  over  the  Restoration  period  as  the  latter  had  felt 
over  the  Elizabethan.  The  trend  of  popular  taste  further 
divorced  the  new  century  from  any  interest  in  romantic  tragi- 
comedy. The  reaction  against  the  licentiousness  of  the  Resto- 
ration stage  resulted  in  a  general  movement  toward  a  moral 
and  sentimental  comedy,  in  which  domestic  themes  replaced  ro- 
mantic, and  middle-class  society  supplanted  royalty.  Reason 
and  morality  became  the  standards  of  literary  judgment.  In 
short,  every  influence  tended  to  preclude  the  revival  of  a  form 
whose  romantic  excesses,  unnatural  portrayal  of  life,  disregard 
of  poetic  justice,  defiance  of  the  laws  of  cause  and  effect,  and 
other  absurdities,  proclaimed  the  relic  of  a  barbarous  age. 
All  things  considered,  then,  it  is  not  surprising  that  tragicomedy 
was  a  word  almost  unknown  in  eighteenth  century  drama. 
To  critics  it  represented  a  monstrosity  safely  interred  among 
the  crudities  of  the  past ;  and  its  riddance  was  hailed  as  a  credit 
to  the  purer  taste  of  the  age.^     As  a  living  growth,  traditional 

^  For  example,  Wm,  Cooke,  Elements  of  Dramatic  Criticism  (1775), 
Chap.  XIV :  "  We  are  happy,  however,  in  treating  of  this  subject,  that  we 
are  now  speaking  of  its  manes;  tragi-comedy  having  left  this  country 
(where,  we  are  afraid,  it  was  originally  hatched)  above  half  a  century 
ago ;  for  declining,  as  the  present  state  of  the  stage  is ;  our  taste  has,  as 

188 


189 

tragicomedy  had  disappeared  from  the  Enghsh  stage  never  to 
return.  Its  subsequent  history  is  concerned  only  with  the 
various  echoes  it  aroused  in  latter-day  dramatic  practise  and 
critical  opinion. 

Of  the  few  points  of  contact  between  eighteenth  century 
drama  and  tragicomedy,  the  most  vital  perhaps  is  found  in  the 
continued  stage  popularity  of  old  English  plays.  Among  the 
persistent  revivals  of  Elizabethan  and  Restoration  favorites 
thruout  the  century,  old  tragicomedies  appeared  periodically, 
representing,  in  fact,  the  last  chapter  in  the  stage  history  of  the 
form.  As  in  the  preceding  era,  the  Beaumont-Fletcher  plays 
were  in  most  favor.  The  opening  years  of  the  century  wit- 
nessed the  presentation  of  "  A  King  and  No  King,"  "  Humor- 
ous Lieutenant,"  "  Loyal  Subject,"  "  Island  Princess "  and 
"  Woman  Pleased,"  some  of  which  kept  the  boards  thruout 
the  century.  In  171 1  "  Philaster  "  was  successfully  performed, 
after  an  absence  of  fifteen  years  from  the  stage,  and  came  on 
again  in  171 5.  Later,  George  Colman's  alteration  of  the  play 
(1763)  marked  the  beginning  of  a  series  of  revivals  that  ex- 
tended into  the  nineteenth  century.  Massinger's  "  Bondman," 
slightly  altered,  was  acted  17 19  with  Betterton  in  the  title  role,^ 
and  years  later  a  second  revision  by  Cumberland  appeared. 
The  growing  interest  in  Shakspere  and  the  great  popularity 
of  his  tragedies  resulted  in  repeated  revivals  of  his  romances 
during  the  latter  half  of  the  century.  Other  Elizabethan 
tragicomedies  as  well  figured  on  the  late  eighteenth  century 
stage  in  the  general  revival  of  romantic  interest;  while  of  the 
Restoration  type,  Dryden's  "  Spanish  Friar  "  was  a  permanent 
fixture  thruout  the  age. 

In  spite  of  this  rather  considerable  interest  in  romantic 
tragicomedy,  no  original  pieces  of  the  sort  resulted.     The  few 

yet,  purity  enough  to  reject  this  seduction  with  universal  contempt;  and 
we  hope,  for  the  credit  of  posterity,  no  succeeding  age  will  relapse  into 
a  species  of  the  drama,  at  once  so  repugnant  to  all  the  laws  of  art  as  well 
as  nature." 

-The  Bond-Man:  or  Love  and  Liberty.  A  Tragi-comedy.  As  it  is  now 
Acted  at  the  Theatre  Royal  in  Drury-Lane.  By  His  Majesty's  Servants. 
Lojidon.  1719.  The  alterations  in  this  edition  are  attributed  to  Betterton. 
Genest,  II,  644. 


190 

sporadic  productions  of  the  century  that  bear  the  genre  name 
ilkistrate  the  form  chiefly  in  the  decadent  aspects  noted  in  the 
preceding  period.  Elkanah  Settle's  "  Siege  of  Troy  "  (c.  1703) 
is  the  only  one  of  the  group  that  is  claimed  to  have  been  acted  f 
tho  Martin  Bladen's  "Solon:  or,  Philosophy  No  Defence 
against  Love  "  (1705)  was  evidently  intended  for  the  stage  and 
may  have  some  title  to  serious  drama.  The  other  half-dozen  are 
trifles  or  absurdities  of  one  form  or  another,  and  only  illustrate 
the  tendency  already  encountered  to  apply  the  title  name  to 
illegitimate  types  of  drama.*  This  decadent  use  of  the  term 
was  a  natural  result  of  the  disappearance  of  the  species  itself 

^  The  Siege  of  Troy,  a  Tragi-Comedy,  as  it  has  been  often  acted  n'ith 
great  Applause.      London,  n.  d.  (1703), 

*  The  titles  are  usually  sufficient  to  indicate  the  character  of  the  pieces. 
All  may  be  found  in  the  Biographia  Draiiiatica,  In  chronological  order 
they  are : — 

Caledonia ;  or,  the  Pedlar  tiirn'd  Merchant.  A  Tragi-comedy,  As  it 
was  Acted  by  His  Majesty's  Subjects  of  Scotland,  in  the  King  of  Spain's 
Province  of  Darien.  London:  1700.  This  is  not  a  play  at  all  but  an 
anonymous  verse  satire  on   the   Darien  expedition. 

Ireland  Preserv'd:  or  the  Siege  of  London-Derry.  Together  zvith  the 
Troubles  of  the  North.  Written  by  the  then  Governour  (John  Michel- 
burne),  2  pts.,  London,   1705.     Part  II   adds,  A   Tragi-comedy. 

The  Tragi-Comedy  of  Joan  of  Hedington.  Scene  Hedington.  In 
Imitation  of  Shakespear.  A  capricious  skit  published  in  the  Useful  Miscel- 
lanies of  Dr.  Wm.  King,  London,  171 2.      The  prolog  states, 

Our   Play  won't   make  ye   Laugh,   nor  make  ye   Cry, 
For  'tis  a  perfect  Tragi-comedy. 

Hoops  into  Spinning-Wheels.  A  Tragi-Comedy.  Written  by  a  gentle- 
man in  Gloucestershire  (John  Blanch).      Gloucester,   1725. 

The  English  Stage  Italianiz'd.  In  a  new  Dramatic  entertainment,  called 
Dido  and  ^neas :  or.  Harlequin,  a  Butler,  a  Pimp,  a  Minister  of  State, 
Generalissimo,  and  Lord  High  Admiral:  dead  and  alive  again,  and  at 
last  crown'd  King  of  Carthage,  by  Dido.  A  Tragi-Comedy,  after  the 
Italian  manner;  by  way  of  Essay,  or  first  step  towards  the  farther  Im- 
provement of  the  English  Stage.  Written  by  Thomas  D'Urfey,  Poet 
Laureat  de  Jure.  London :  1727.  This  posthumous  piece  is  only  a  farcical 
scenario. 

The  Reign  of  Hellebore,  King  of  Rien  de  Tout.  A  Tragi-Comedy. 
Printed  at  York,  1760. 

The  Spanish  Celestina  was  translated  and  adapted  to  the  English  stage, 
supposedly  by  J.  Savage,  in  1707;  and  the  Pastor  Fido  was  put  into  heroic 
couplets  by  an  anonymous  translator  in  1736. 


191 

from  the  regular  stage.  The  word  recurs  here  and  there  thru- 
out  the  century  as  a  sort  of  makeshift  term  of  whimsical  appli- 
cation.^ Quite  a  number  of  "  tragi-comic  farces "  appear 
among  the  operatic  and  pantomimic  entertainments  that  sprang 
up  in  great  numbers  during  the  first  half  of  the  century.  To 
such  pieces  the  term  was  applied  in  all  sorts  of  grotesque  com- 
binations. For  example,  John  Gay  entitled  his  "  What  d'ye 
call  it?"  (1715)  a  "  Tragi-Comi-Pastoral  Farce,"  explaining 
in  the  preface  that  the  whole  art  of  such  composition  lay  "  in 
interweaving  the  several  kinds  of  drama  with  each  other,  so 
that  they  cannot  be  distinguished  or  separated."  Accordingly, 
the  piece  presents  a  tragic  plot,  interlarded  with  comedy  and 
accompanied  with  music,  the  whole  intended  as  a  parody  on 
familiar  contemporary  tragedies.  Instances  of  this  sort  are 
common  enough  in  the  eighteenth  century  illegitimate  drama, 
but  represent  a  wide  divergence  from  any  integral  relation  to 
our  subject. 

With  tragicomedy  after  1700  an  extinct  genre  in  the  living 
drama,  an  unrecognized  name  on  the  regular  stage,  and  a  relic 
of  the  past  in  critical  opinion,  the  questions  arise,  What  de- 
veloped in  its  stead?  what  supplied  its  functions?  what  occu- 
pied the  intermediate  ground  of  that  which  was  neither  right 
tragedy  nor  right  comedy?  For  surely  the  demand  for  the 
play  of  serious  theme  and  happy  ending  persisted  even  in  an 
age.  that  had  discarded  romantic  improbabilities  and  tragicomic 
absurdities  as  contrary  to  rule  and  reason.  In  fact,  as  the 
traditional  romantic  features  of  the  species  fell  into  disuse,  its 
perennial  traits  became  absorbed  in  the  two  dramatic  forms 
of  classical  recognition.     Both  in  tragedy  and,  more  particu- 

^  Note,  for  example,  the  following  titles  : 

The  play-house  scuffle,  or,  Passive  Obedience  kickt  off  the  stage.  Being 
a  true  relation  of  a  new-fragi-comedy,  as  it  zvas  acted  last  rveek  at  the  play- 
house in  Drury-Lane ;  by  several  notorious  actors,  frequently  call'd  Her 
Majesties  Servants,  hut  of  late  turn'd  their  ozvn  masters.  In  two  canto's. 
London.     1710. 

Tragi-Comical  Reflections,  of  a  Moral  and  Political  Tendancy,  occasioned 
By  the  Present  State  of  the  tiuo  Rival  Theatres  in  Drury-Lane  and  Lincolns- 
Inn-Fields.     By  Gabriel  Rennel,  Esq;  London:  n.  d,  (1725). 

The  History  of  England,  from  the  Norman  Conquest  to  the  present  time ; 
or  a  tragi-comic  song,  in  four  parts.     By  Nathan  Withy.     Worcester,  1789. 


192 

larly,   in   sentimental    comedy,   the   eighteenth   century    found 
recourse  for  that  which  tragicomedy  had  once  suppHed. 

In  the  first  place,  the  idea  already  current  in  England  that  the 
term  tragedy  could  include  plays  of  happy  catastrophe  per- 
sisted strongly  thruout  the  eighteenth  century,  and  in  critical 
debate  became  involved  in  the  question  of  "poetic  justice" 
lately  raised  by  Rymer,  a  doctrine  on  which  the  professed  dic- 
tators of  correct  taste  were  much  at  variance.  At  the  be- 
ginning of  the  century,  Dennis  and  Gildon  argued  for  the  equal 
distribution  of  rewards  and  punishments  in  tragedy ;  the  virtu- 
ous and  innocent  should  be  allowed  to  triumph  and  the  guilty 
alone  suffer.  And  Shakspere's  non-observance  of  this  doctrine 
brought  forth  their  unqualified  censure.  On  the  other  hand, 
Addison  and  Steele  as  vigorously  denounced  poetical  justice  as 
having  "  no  Foundation  in  Nature,  in  Reason,  or  in  the  Prac- 
tice of  the  Ancients."®  Thus  critical  opinion  on  this  point  con- 
tinued to  be  divided  thruout  the  century."  In  practise,  how- 
ever, poetical  justice  received  a  complete  vindication.  Popular 
taste  favored  it ;  and  this — as  Pye,  a  late  defender  of  the  doc- 
trine, maintained — constituted  the  court  of  last  appeal,  whose 
affirmative  decree  on  the  question  had  reversed  the  dictatorial 
edict  of  Addison  and  his  coterie.  "  The  Tragedy  of  King 
Lear,"  he  cited  in  proof,  "  has  always  ended  with  the  happiness 
of  Cordelia  and  the  restoration  of  the  old  monarch,  from  the 
first  alteration  of  it  by  Tate."*     As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  double 

spectator.  No.  40.      Cp.  also,  Tatler,  No.  82. 

'The  following  passage  from  Goldsmith,  Art  of  Poetry  (1761),  states 
the  situation :  "  Tragedy  is  not  always  to  end  with  the  misfortunes  of  some 
principal  person ;  for  sometimes  it  may  have  a  happy  Catastrophe,  and 
sometimes  a  double  one  ;  that  is,  happy  for  the  good,  and  unhappy  for  the 
guilty;  but  the  single  and  tinfortunate  Catastrophe  is  reckoned  the  best, 
as  it  is  most  likely  to  produce  terror  and  compassion. — It  is  a  dispute 
indeed  among  the  critics,  whether  virtue  should  ahi'ays  be  rewarded,  and 
vice  punished  in  the  Catastrophe  of  a  Tragedy ;  but  the  reasons  on  the 
negative  side  seem  the  strongest."      II,   170. 

^  A  Commentary  illustrating  the  Poetic  of  Aristotle  (1792),  p.  265  ff.  The 
author  goes  on  to  express  his  own  preference  thus : — "  To  argue  from  my 
own  feelings,  that  arrangement  of  dramatic  fable  is  at  the  same  time  the 
most  affecting,  and  the  most  pleasing  in  which  those  characters  in  whose 
welfare  we  are  strongly  interested,  after  experiencing  the  greatest  distress. 


193 

ending  resulting  from  a  strict  observance  of  poetic  justice  is 
one  of  the  distinctive  features  of  eighteenth  century  tragedy. 
Moreover,  tragedies  of  no  tragic  catastrophe  at  all  became  in- 
creasingly common.  Mere  regularity  of  form  might  be  in  it- 
self sufificient  to  call  forth  the  title;  the  concluding  event,  at 
least,  was  unessential.  An  admirable  case  in  point  is  Colman's 
alteration  of  "  Philaster  "  (1763),  which  is  termed  a  "Trag- 
edy," altho  the  tragic  action  is  considerably  reduced  in  order  to 
make  the  hero's  conduct  more  reasonable.  The  author's  de- 
fense of  the  title  illustrates  the  attitude  of  the  age:  '*  If  to 
move  the  passions  of  pity  and  terror  are  the  two  chief  ends  of 
Tragedy,  there  needs  no  apology  for  giving  that  title  to  the  play 
of  Philaster.  If  Lear,  Hamlet,  Othello,  &c.  &c.  notwithstand- 
ing the  casual  introduction  of  comick  circumstances  in  the 
natural  course  of  the  action,  are  tragedies ;  Philaster  is  so  too."® 
One  road  by  which  tragicomedy  disappeared  is  evident  enough. 
Secondly,  by  a  corresponding  extension  of  meaning,  the  term 
comedy,  in  its  eighteenth  century  usage,  came  to  encroach  as 
much  beyond  its  traditional  bounds.  The  nevo2lc»*al-and  sen- 
timental species,  which  sprang  into  vogue  early  in  the  century 
in  the  general  reaction  against  past  licentiousness,  introduces 
an  interesting  sidelight  to  our  subject.  Dating  in  spirit  at  least 
from  Elizabethan  times,  sentimental  comedy  first  became  a 
full-blown  and  consequential  type  on  the  English  stage  in 
such  plays  as  Colley  Gibber's  "Careless  Husband"  (1704)  and 
Richard  Steele's  "  Conscious  Lovers"  (1722),  whence  it  con- 
tinued to  flourish  with  vigor  thruout  the  century  even  after 
the  ridicule  of  Goldsmith  had  tempered  its  popularity. 
The  sentimental  and  moral  treatment  of  a  domestic  theme 

and  while  their  utter  ruin  or  death  seems  inevitable,  are  at  once  relieved 
by  a  sudden  revolution  of  fortune  quite  unexpected  and  yet  not  improbable ; 
and  the  pleasure  received  from  this  will  be  greatly  encreased  if  the  dis- 
tress of  the  fable  arises  from  tyranny  and  oppression,  the  author  of  which 
is  involved  in  ruin  by  the  peripetia.  Such  an  arrangement  will  both 
excite  pity  and  terror,  and  the  catastrophe  will  be  still  agreeable  to  our 
feelings.  This  form  is  exemplified  in  the  Wife  for  a  Month  of  Beaumont 
and  Fletcher,  the  Marriage  A-Ia-Mode  of  Dryden,  the  Grecian  Daughter, 
and  above  all  in  the  fourth  act  of  the  Merchant  of  Venice." 
'  Advertisement. 
14 


194 

wherein  suffering  abounded  and  virtue  triumphed  became  the 
estabhshcd  basis  of  the  species.  This  introduction  of  the 
graver  elements  of  pathos  and  morahty  into  comedy  naturally 
resulted  in  a  more  serious  type  of  play.  Comedy  no  longer 
furnished  fun  and  amusement,  but  stirred  the  deeper  emotions 
'of  pity  and  sorrow  and  called  forth  the  love  of  virtue.  The 
sentimental  type,  indeed,  may  be  well  described  as  a  kind  of 
intermediate  between  tragedy  and  comedy.  In  its  more  serious 
presentations  of  social  life  it  is  but  a  step  removed  from  the 
type  of  domestic  tragedy  that  Heywood  and  others  had  essayed 
in  the  Elizabethan  period  and  Lillo  revived  in  the  eighteenth 
century.  The  "  London  Merchant"  (1731),  in  its  problematic 
theme,  penitent  sinner  and  morally  satisfactory  ending,  only 
echoes  the  "  English  Traveller "  and  the  ''  Witch  of  Ed- 
monton." 

A  brief  indication  of  the  distinctive  character  of  sentimental 
comedy — or  comcdic  lannoyante,  as  it  was  known  in  France  ^° 
— is  sufficient  to  show  its  generic  resemblance  to  tragicomedy. 
It  presented  an  essential  serious  interest  and  at  the  same  time 
catered  to  the  love  of  the  happy  ending.  Moreover,  amid  pre- 
vailing gravity,  it  almost  invariably  introduced  some  comic 
element.  But  beyond  such  general  similitudes,  parallels  be- 
tween the  two  types  languish.  Tragicomedy,  accepted  in  its 
traditional  sense,  connoted  something  very  dift'erent  from  the 
later  species.  Its  scenes  are  in  fanciful  realms  remote  from 
actuality  ;  its  actions  compass  the  fates  of  kingdoms  as  well  as 
lovers  ;  its  leading  personages  are  the  monarchs  and  heroes  of 
romance  ;  it  presents  an  exaggerated  portrayal  of  character, 
a  tangled  web  of  incident,  and  solves  its  dilemmas  as  fancy 
and  not  truth  directs.  From  traits  of  .this  sort  it  is  a  goodly 
drop  to  the  prosaic  features  of  sentimental  comedy  :  its  sor- 
rows and  sufferings  of  middle-class  English  society,  its  truer 
representation  of  life,  its  social  problems,  and  its  emphasis  on 
moral  lessons  and  virtuous  conduct.  With  the  thrills,  the  hair- 
breadth escapes  from  death,  and  the  general  theatricality  of 
tragicomedy,  it  has  nothing  to  do.     Financial  ruin,  virtue  in 

'"For  a  discussion  of  the  subject  in  France,  see  G.  Lanson,  Nivelle  de 
La  Cliaiisscc  ct  la  Comedie  Lannoyante   (1887). 


195 

distress,  marital  troubles — make  up  its  stock  in  trade  of 
seriousness.  Whereas  tragicomedy  might  arouse  both  pity  and 
terror  and  temper  all  with  a  happy  ending  ;  sentimental 
comedy  could  stir  pity  alone,  and  its  final  reconciliation  falls 
far  short  of  the  stage  effectiveness  of  its  romantic  predecessor. 
The  happy  denouement  is  usually  foreshadowed  far  in  ad- 
vance. As  in  modern  melodrama,  there  is  never  a  doubt  but 
that  Fortune  is  on  the  side  of  young  love  and  virtue.  For  one 
set  of  dramatic  falsities,  sentimental  comedy  substituted  only 
another. 

It  is  plain,  then,  that  there  is  scant  lineal  relation  between 
the  two  forms.  Sentimental  comedy  was  in  no  sense  a  con- 
tinuation of  tragicomedy,  tho  it  developed  in  time  to  take  the 
place  in  popular  favor  vacated  by  the  latter,  and  for  that 
reason  deserves  some  notice.  By  subservience  to  the  happy 
ending,  it  fell  short  of  tragedy  ;  yet  it  abused  the  name  of 
comedy.  Its  intermediate  scope  is  well  put  by  Diderot  in 
commenting  on  his  own  "  Le  Fils  Naturel"  (1757),  a  play  of 
the  type.  To  a  query  as  to  the  classification  of  the  piece,  he 
replied  that  it  belonged  to  le  ge^nre  serieux,  which  he  de- 
cribed  as  a  medial  form  lying  between  tragedy  and  comedy, 
which  had  the  advantage  of  being  able  to  draw  from  both, 
while  they  were  restricted  within  prescribed  bounds. ^^  Serious 
drama  it  was,  and  as  such  it  suggests  the  manner  in  which 
something  akin  to  tragicomedy  has  been  represented  on  the 
stage  to  the  present  day. 

Strangely  enough,  by  the  sanction  of  critical  opinion,  eigh- 
teenth century  comedy  was  allowed  to  range  almost  at  will. 
It  might  admit  the  graver  elements  of  tragedy  ad  libitum  and 
still  be  comedy.  Even  the  classical  Voltaire  would  deny  no 
liberties  to  this  species  :  with  equal  propriety  it  might  be  en- 
tirely jocose,  or  a  mixture  of  seriousness  and  pleasantry,  or, 

"  Troisieme  Entretien  appended  to  Lc  Fils  Natural  (CEuvres — ed.  1821 — 
IV,  184  ff.).  With  the  usual  critical  view  of  tragicomedy,  he  goes  on  to 
comment  on  that  genre  as  follows :  "  Vous  voyez  que  la  tragi-comedie  ne 
peut  etre  qu'un  mauvais  genre,  parce  qu'on  y  confond  deux  genres  eloignes 
et  separes  par  una  barriere  naturelle.  On  n'y  passe  point  par  des  nuances 
imperceptibles ;  on  tombe  a  chaque  pas  dans  les  contrastes,  et  I'unite 
disparait,"     Ibid.,  p.   187. 


196 

indeed,  toiite  scrieiisc}-  On  the  other  hand,  no  such  hcense 
was  allowed  tragedy.  The  slightest  admixture  of  levity 
brought  down  an  avalanche  of  critical  opprobrium  from  the 
self-constituted  champions  of  true  taste.  The  result  was  that 
practically  no  eighteenth  century  tragedy,  in  England  at  least, 
admitted  comedy;  and  comic  portions  were  even  cut  out  of 
many  of  the  old  stock  plays.  For  that  particular  violation  of 
decorum  in  the  tragedies  of  the  past,  those  of  Shakspere 
especially,  critics  had  no  condemnation  strong  enough. ^^  It 
was  decried  as  a  practise  contrary  to  art,  taste,  and  the  author- 
ity of  the  ancients,  and  one  for  which  there  was  no  defense. 
Moreover,  the  introduction  of  levity  in  a  tragic  theme  was 
universally  hailed  as  tragicomedy,  which  brings  up  the  whole 
question  of  the  critical  side  of  the  subject  in  the  eighteenth 
century,  the  most  interesting  aspect  of  its  posthumous  history. 

To  the  growing  interest  in  Shakspere  that  the  various  edi- 
tions of  his  work  and  the  stage  popularity  of  his  plays  aroused 
all  thru  the  century,  is  largely  due  the  numerous  learned 
opinions  on  tragicomedy  that  accompany  the  criticism  of  the 
age.  An  examination  of  the  faults  and  virtues  of  the  great 
Elizabethan  disclosed  that  he  had  mingled  tragic  and  comic,  or, 
in  other  words,  had  been  guilty  of  tragicomedy.  This,  in  turn, 
revealed  that  the  same  had  characterized  the  age,  and,  in  fact, 
that  the  stage  had  been  but  lately  purified  of  this  barbarous 
practise.  Almost  all  critics  had  something  to  say  on  the  sub- 
ject: most  condemned  the  mixed  species  utterly;  a  few  had  the 
temerity  to  defend  it.  Some  echoed  the  Restoration  opinion 
of  its  English  origin ;  others  declared  it  belonged  to  a  far  earlier 
period.  But  as  to  what  constituted  tragicomedy  all  were 
agreed. 

The  very  first  utterances  on  the  subject  introduce  the  points 
at  issue  and  forecast  the  general  trend  of  future  opinion. 
Nicholas  Rowe,  the  first  of  a  long  line  of  Shaksperian  editors, 

"See  preface  to  the  Enfant  Prodigne  (1738). 

"  This  aspect  of  eighteenth  century  criticism  is  treated  at  length  in 
Professor  Lounsbury's  Shakespeare  as  a  Dramatic  Artist  (1901),  Chap.  IV, 
much  of  which  is  pertinent  to  our  subject. 


197 

in  accord  with  the  prevaiHng  classicism,  declared  of  his 
author's  work  : 

"  His  Plays  are  properly  to  be  distinguish'd  only  into  Comedies  and 
Tragedies.  Those  which  are  called  Histories,  and  even  some  of  his 
Comedies,  are  really  Tragedies,  with  a  run  or  mixture  of  Comedy  amongst 
'em.  That  way  of  Trage-comedy  was  the  common  mistake  of  that  age, 
and  is  indeed  become  so  agreeable  to  the  English  taste,  that  tho'  the 
severer  Critiques  among  us  cannot  bear  it,  yet  the  generality  of  our  audi- 
ences seem  to  be  better  pleas'd  with  it  than  with  an  exact  Tragedy."" 

Two  years  later,  171 1,  Addison,  writing  in  the  "Spectator," 
more  nearly  expressed  the  extreme  classicist's  abhorrence  of 
the  form  : 

"  The  Tragi-Comedy,  which  is  the  Product  of  the  English  Theatre,  is 
one  of  the  most  monstrous  Inventions  that  ever  entered  into  a  Poet's 
Thoughts.  An  Author  might  as  well  think  of  weaving  the  Adventures  of 
^neas  and  Hudibras  into  one  Poem,  as  of  writing  such  a  motly  Piece  of 
Mirth  and  Sorrow.  But  the  Absurdity  of  these  Performances  is  so  very 
viiible,  that  I  shall  not  insist  upon  it."^' 

With  opinions  of  this  sort  the  contemporary  criticism  of 
Dennis  and  Gildon  accorded  in  the  main.  Neither  was  a  thoro- 
going  classicist,  yet  neither  had  anything  to  offer  in  favor  of 
tragicomedy.  Dennis,  however,  vigorously  denied  Addison's 
claim  that  the  form  was  an  English  invention^° — a  point 
which  Gildon  had  earlier  contested  in  connexion  with 
Dryden's  similar  assertion.^''  The  latter  critic,  moreover, 
while  admitting  that  the  ill-advised  union  of  grief  and 
laughter,  "  what  is  done  so  commonly  among  us  in  our  Tragi- 
comedies/' was  an  absurdity  that  even  Shakspere  had  been 

^*  Some  account  of  the  Life,  etc.  of  Mr.  William  Shakespear,  1709  (D.  N. 
Smith,  Eighteenth  Century  Essays  on  Shakespeare,  1903,  p.  10). 

^^  Spectator,  No.  40,  April  16,  171 1. 

^*  "  He  is  vilely  mistaken  if  he  thinks  that  Tragi-Comedy  is  of  the  Growth 
of  our  English  Theatres."  Letters,  familiar,  moral  and  critical  (1712), 
p.  407. 

" "  We  did  not  invent  Tragicomedy,  as  is  plain  from  the  Prologue  of 
Plaittus  to  his  Amphitryo  (Quotes).  Nay  this  unnatural  Mixture  was  even 
before  Tragedy  was  in  Perfection ;  that  is  in  the  Infancy  of  the  Stage  in 
both  Athens  and  Rome ;  till  rejected  and  the  Stage  reformed  from  it  by  the 
greatest  Wits  and  Poets  of  these  Cities,  as  a  Mixture  wholly  monstruous 
and  unnatural."  Remarks  on  the  Plays  of  Shakespear,  in  Rowe's  edition 
(1710),  Vn,  431. 


198 

guilty  of,  protested  Rowe's  observation  that  such  mixtures 
pleased  better  than  tragedies.  For,  excepting  Shakspere's, 
"  we  have  not  for  some  Years  past  had  any  of  the  kind  on  the 
Stage,  which  have  pleas'd;  The  Fatal  Marriage  and  Oroonoko 
are  the  last,  that  I  can  remember  "  ^^ — a  statement  significant 
in  more  ways  than  one. 

On  the  theory  of  tragicomedy,  however,  unanimity  pre- 
vailed. The  above  utterances  suggest  the  ideas  that  the  eigh- 
teenth century  had  come  to  associate  with  the  term.  It  evi- 
dently could  denote  either  of  two  different  styles  of  composi- 
tion, between  which  the  lines  of  demarcation  were  not  always 
y  clear  :  First,  the  haphazard  mixture  of  mirth  and  gravity, 
which  Shakspere's  want  of  art  had  led  him  to  practise,  and 
which  was  usually  condoned  as  the  fault  of  his  age  ;^''  and 
second,  the  union  of  two  distinct  plots,  one  comic  and  one 
serious,  which  Dryden  and  his  contemporaries  had  popular- 
ized in  the  Restoration  era.  Beyond  these  bounds,  the  eigh- 
teenth century  critical  view  of  tragicomedy  never  strayed. 
Under  the  first  heading,  hardly  an  Elizabethan  play,  strictly 
speaking,  was  exempt  from  the  opprobrious  classification.^" 
Shakspere's  tragedies  especially,  when  unpurged  of  their  comic 
admixture,  fell  under  the  ban  ;  even  "  Hamlet "  was  rated  by 

^^  Ibid.,  p  437;  and,  Essay  on  the  Art,  Rise  and  Progress  of  the  Stage  in 
Greece,  Rome  and  England,  Ibid.,  pp.  ix,  Ixvii.  Cp.  also  the  same  author's 
Lazvs  of  Poetry  (1721),  p.  25. 

"For  example,  Lord  Lyttelton,  Dialogues  of  the  Dead  (1760),  Dialogue 
XIV :  "  The  strange  mixture  of  tragedy,  comedy,  and  farce  in  the  same 
play,  nay  sometimes  in  the  same  scene,  I  acknowledge  to  be  quite  inex- 
cusable. But  this  was  the  taste  of  the  times  when  Shakespeare  wrote "  ; 
also,  Pye,  in  the  same  connexion,  Commentary  illustrating  the  Poetic  of 
Aristotle  (1792),  p.  127:  "That  the  necessity  of  committing  this  fault 
was  imposed  on  him  by  the  taste  of  the  public,  is  apparent,  from  the  prac- 
tice of  all  the  contemporary  writers,  and  if  he  has  contrived  to  do  it  with 
less  impropriety  than  others,  it  surely  is  no  small  degree  of  merit." 

^  One  critic  went  so  far  as  to  declare  that  the  compositions  of  that 
period  were  so  heterogeneous  that  they  could  not  even  be  properly  called 
tragicomedies,  but  were  cautiously  denominated  plays.  Critical  Reflections 
on  the  Old  English  Dramatick  Writers.  Extracted  from  a  Prefatory  Dis- 
course to  the  new  Edition  of  Massinger's  Works  (Anon.),  1761,  I,  p.  xxxi. 


199 

some  a  tragicomedy.-^  But  it  was  rather  the  play  of  double 
plot,  which  dated  from  the  later  period,  that  was  regarded  as 
the  full-blown  form  of  the  species.-"  The  basis  of  this  con- 
ception of  tragicomedy  the  age  had  inherited  from  the  pre- 
ceding era,  but  in  the  general  growth  of  critical  feeling  had 
extended  beyond  its  original  bounds.  The  mere  presence  of  a 
comic  sub-plot,  regardless  of  the  denouement  of  the  serious 
interest,  was  enough  to  define  the  type.  Hence,  "  Venice 
Preserved,"  "  Fatal  Marriage,"  "  Oroonoko,"  and  other  pre- 
vious tragedies  of  the  sort  were  all  tragicomedies  in  the  eigh- 
teenth century,--^  as  well  as  the  "  Spanish  Friar  "  and  "  Love 
Triumphant."  It  was  by  such  abuses  of  the  genre  title  that  the 
critical  view  of  tragicomedy  became  completely  detached  from 
any  foundation  in  the  stage  tradition  of  the  form.  That  the 
Duke  of  Buckingham  should  have  entitled  his  alteration  of 
"  Philaster "  a  tragicomedy,  was  evidently  a  matter  for  com- 
ment at  the  time  of  Colman  ;  for  "  that  word,"  the  latter  ex- 
plained, "  according  to  its  present  acceptation,  conveys  the  idea 
of  a  very  different  species  of  composition  ;  a  play  like  the 
Spanish  Friar,  or  Oroonoko,  in  which  two  distinct  actions, 
one  serious  and  the  other  comick,  are  unnaturally  woven 
together."  -^ 

The  unnaturalness  and  absurdity  of  the  practise  few  failed 

^  For  example,  see  Stevens's  letter  to  Garrick  on  the  latter's  altered 
version  of  Hamlet.     Garrick  Correspondence,  I,  451. 

^  To  quote  Pye,  A  Commentary,  etc.,  p.  127  ff. :  "However  faulty  the 
practice  of  the  age  of  Shakespear  may  have  been  in  this  respect  (mingling 
kinds),  it  was  reserved  for  the  next,  though  proud  of  their  increasing 
refinement,  to  produce  that  monster  of  the  drama,  the  regular  tragi-comedy  ; 
where  two  distinct  fables,  the  one  distressful,  the  other  ridiculous,  were 
carried  on  together  ;  not  only  violating  the  unity  of  action,  but  making  so 
absurd  a  mixture  of  sorrow  and  mirth,  that  as  Addison  observes,  a  poet 
might  as  well  think  of  weaving  the  adventures  of  ^neas  and  Huldibras  into 
one  poem.  .  .  .  The  error  of  Shakespear  is  like  that  of  Homer,  in  intro- 
ducing Thersites  in  a  serious  poem,  but  the  tragi-comedy  resembles  the 
Iliad  and  Margites,  mixed  together."  Cp.  also  John  Penn,  Letters  on  the 
Drama  (1796),  Letter  IX. 

^"^  For  example,  compare  Gildon,  above,  p.  198. 

^Advertisement  to  Philaster,  a  Tragedy  (1763),  altered  by  Geo.  Colman 
from  Beaumont  and  Fletcher, 


200 

to  dwell  on  at  length.  In  accepted  critical  opinion  such  a  pro- 
cedure represented  the  worst  possible  violation  of  decorum;  it 
outraged  the  canons  of  classical  usage  and  correct  taste;  it 
was  an  insult  to  art.  The  specific  points  urged  against  the 
form  were  only  those  of  the  past  renewed  and  amplified.  The 
chief  ground  of  complaint  seemed  to  be  the  dissonant  emo- 
tional effect  that  tragicomedy  was  supposed  to  create  in  the 
mind  of  the  spectator.  According  to  the  fallacious  reasoning 
of  the  day,  tragedy  and  comedy  introduced  together  produced 
impressions  that  mutually  destroyed  each  other  and  left  the 
mind  in  a  state  of  confusion.  Thus  Gildon  emphatically  con- 
tested Dryden's  early  arguments  maintaining  the  propriety 
and  excellence  of  the  mixed  species.  The  soul  that  can  respond 
to  the  swift  transitions  of  tragicomedy,  he  argued,  and  "  start 
from  Tears  to  Laughter,  and  from  Laughter  to  Tears,  five 
times  in  one  Play,  .  .  .  must  be  like  some  Childrens  and 
Womens  who  can  weep  and  laugh  in  a  Breath."  And  as  to  the 
question  of  agreeable  relief  afforded  by  the  "  unnatural  ]Mix- 
ture,"  one  might  as  well  think  of  acting  a  tragedy  and  a  com- 
edy together,  which  no  one  could  think  a  perfection.  "  And 
yet,"  he  added,  "  most  if  not  all  of  our  ]\Iodern  Tragi- 
comedies are  even  as  if  a  Tragedy  and  Comedy  was  acted 
together;  the  Comic  Part  of  them  having  no  more  to  do  with 
or  Relation  to  the  Tragic,  than  if  it  were  another  Play."-* 
The  learned  Oxford  lecturer,  Joseph  Trapp,  who  viewed  the 
form  in  the  light  of  its  classical  ancestry,  arrived  at  much  the 
same  conclusions.  Since  contrary  passions  counteracted  each 
other,  what  was  more  absurd,  he  urged,  than  a  play  whereby 
the  mind  was  continually  distraught  between  sorrow  and  joy; 
adding  the  reflection  that  whereas  ancient  tragicomedy  was 
absurd  enough  in  joining  characters  of  contrary  station,  its 
modern  prototype  had  gone  further  in  uniting  serious  and 
trivial  events  as  well.-^  ISIuch  later  in  the  century,  William 
Cooke,  who  devoted  a  chapter  of  his  "  Elements  of  Dramatic 

^Remarks  on  the  Plays  of  Shakcspear  (1710),  Rowe's  ed,,  VII,  432  ff. 
^^  Prcelectiones  Poeticce,  Oxonii :  171 9,  III,  4-5,     The  first  edition  appeared 


201 

Criticism"  (1775)  to  the  subject,"®  reiterated  the  impossibility 
of  laughing  and  crying  together,  and  as  to  the  unity  of  action 
violated  by  tragicomedy,  merely  repeated  the  words  put  into 
the  mouth  of  Lisideius  a  century  before.-'^  These  same  stric- 
tures— the  weakened  and  unnatural  effect  produced  by  tragi- 
comedy and  its  infraction  of  the  unity  of  action — were  echoed 
later  again  at  the  close  of  the  century  in  John  Penn's  "  Letters 
on  the  Drama"  (1796),-^  and,  in  fact,  may  be  considered  the 
stock  objections  urged  against  the  practise  thruout  the  repre- 
sentative criticism  of  the  age. 

In  a  century  thus  generally  hostile  to  tragicomedy,  the  few 
attempts  to  justify  that  manner  of  composition  are  conspicuous 
by  their  very  audacity.  No  one,  indeed,  could  deny  the  ille- 
gitimacy of  the  species  according  to  the  rules  of  criticism; 
yet  no  one,  on  the  other  hand,  could  deny  the  perennial  popu- 
larity of  Shakspere  and  the  fidelity  of  his  plays  of  the  sort  to 
actual  life,  if  not  to  art.  Colley  Gibber  was  perhaps  the  first 
to  suggest  that  mirth  judiciously  introduced  into  tragedy  might 
be  reckoned  a  positive  beauty;  but  such  liberties  he  limited  to 
the  sphere  of  the  chosen  few.-^  It  was  reserved  for  Dr. 
Johnson  to  voice  an  actual  defense  of  the  practise.  Writing 
in  the  "Rambler"  in  1751,^°  he  gave  as  his  opinion  that  one 

^^  The  Elements  of  Dramatic  Criticism:  Containing  an  analysis  of  the 
stage  under  the  following  heads,  Tragedy,  Tragi-Comedy,  Comedy,  Panto- 
mime, and  Farce.  By  William  Cooke,  1775,  Chap.  XIV,  Of  Tragi- 
Comedy. 

-''  Cp.  the  following  passage  with  the  Essay  of  Dramatic  Poesy  (Ker 
ed.,  I,  57)  :  "  One  of  the  great  requisites  both  of  tragedy  and  comedy,  is 
unity  of  action ;  now,  in  a  tragicomedy,  there  are  tzvo  distinct  actions 
carrying  on  together,  to  the  perplexity  of  the  audience,  who,  before  they 
are  well  engaged  in  the  concernments  of  one  part,  are  diverted  to  another, 
and  by  those  means,  espouse  the  interest  of  neither :  from  hence  likewise 
arises  another  inconvenience  equally  as  absurd,  which  is,  that  one  half  of 
the  characters  of  the  play  are  not  known  to  each  other ;  they  keep  their 
distances  like  the  Mountagues  and  the  Capulets,  and  seldom  begin  an 
acquaintance  till  the  last  scene  of  the  fifth  act,  when  they  all  meet  upon 
the  stage  to  wind  up  their  own  stories." 

^  Letter  IX,  On  Tragi-comedy. 

'^  An  Apology  for  the  Life  of  Colley  Cibber^  Comedian^  written  by  him- 
self (1740),  R.  W.  Lowe  ed.,   1889,  I,  123. 

^'No.   156. 


202 

who  proposed  to  regard  no  other  laws  than  those  of  nature, 
would  be  inclined  to  receive  tragicomedy  to  his  protection. 
"  For  what  is  there  in  the  mingled  drama,"'  he  asks,  "  which 
impartial  reason  can  condemn?  The  connexion  of  important 
with  trivial  incidents,  since  it  is  not  only  common  but  perpetual 
in  the  world,  may  surely  be  allowed  upon  the  stage,  which 
pretends  only  to  be  the  mirror  of  life."'  Not  only  the  example 
of  nature  but  experience  supports  the  practise;  for  "is  it  not 
certain  that  the  tragic  and  comic  affectations  have  been  moved 
alternately  with  equal  force ;  and  that  no  plays  have  of tener 
filled  the  eye  with  tears,  and  the  breast  with  palpitation,  than 
those  which  are  variegated  with  interludes  of  mirth  ? "  Yet 
Johnson's  justification  was  not  unqualified.  He  would  not 
vindicate  tragicomedy  by  the  success  of  Shakspere;  he  would 
rather  regard  its  successful  achievement  by  that  poet  as  a 
further  proof  of  his  transcendent  genius ;  and  perhaps  even 
Shakspere,  he  added,  might  have  been  yet  greater  had  he  left 
this  mode  of  composition  untried.  Later  he  repeated  much 
the  same  argument,  admitting  the  mingled  drama  to  be  con- 
trary to  the  rules  of  criticism,  but  grounding  its  defense  in 
nature  and  proclaiming  it  a  more  faithful  picture  of  life  than 
either  tragedy  or  comedy.^^ 

Whereas  Johnson  defended  tragicomedy  on  abstract  grounds, 
Sir  Joshua  Reynolds  found  a  justification  for  the  practise  in 
the  old  plea  of  its  appeal  to  popular  taste.  "  The  criticks  who 
renounce  tragi-comedy  as  barbarous,"  he  declared,  "  speak 
more  from  notions  which  they  have  formed  in  their  closets, 
than  any  w^ell-built  theory  deduced  from  experience  of  what 
pleases  or  displeases,  which  ought  to  be  the  foundation  of  all 
rules."  In  his  opinion,  the  critical  judgment  of  the  day  as- 
sumed a  refinement  on  the  part  of  the  popular  audience  that 
did  not  exist ;  and  so  long  as  this  state  prevailed  and  the  human 
passion  for  the  variety  and  contrarieties  of  tragicomedy  per- 
sisted, a  dramatic  work  should  use  every  means  to  contribute 
to   that   end.^-      But   positions   of   this   sort   were   practically 

^^  Preface  to  Shakespear,  1768  (D.  X.  Smith,  Eighteenth  Century  Essays 
on  Shakespeare,  p.   118  fiF.). 

^  See  The  Plays  of  William  Shakspeare,  ed.  of  1793,  annotated  by  Sam'l 
Johnson  and  Geo.  Stevens,  I,  49  n. 


203 

untenable  in  an  age  that  had  declared  for  art  pure  and  unde- 
filed.  Only  one  or  two  other  voices  echoed  the  opinions  of 
Johnson  and  Reynolds.  Horace  Walpole,  in  the  preface  to 
the  second  edition  (1765)  of  his  "  Castle  of  Otranto,"  professed 
his  inability  to  understand  why  occasional  pleasantry  ought 
any  more  to  be  banished  from  tragedy,  than  pathetic  serious- 
ness from  comedy.  And  it  seems  that  the  Monthly  Reviewers, 
on  one  occasion  at  least,  offered  a  partial  defense  of  tragi- 
comedy. Pye's  unqualified  censure  of  the  species  they  de- 
clared a  "  rash  anathema,"  observing  that  such  a  play  as  the 
"  Tempest "  so  nearly  realized  the  perfect  union  of  a  solemn 
and  a  ludicrous  fable  into  one  inseparable  whole,  that  a  "  tragic 
comedy  "  could  not  but  seem  practicable.  And  they  were  fur- 
ther of  the  opinion  that  complete  transitions  of  temper  might 
be  accomplished  if  unity  of  manners  were  preserved,  as  evi- 
denced by  the  sentimental  dramas  of  the  day.^^  All  eighteenth 
century  critics,  however,  whether  denouncing  or  defending 
tragicomedy,  were  treating  of  a  mode  of  composition  that 
might  include  almost  any  play  of  the  past  age,  from  a  tragedy 
of  blood  like  "  Hamlet "  to  a  romance  like  the  "  Tempest " ; 
and  in  this  respect,  their  arguments  either  for  or  against  are 
somewhat  beside  the  point.  One  last  aspect  of  the  critical 
interest  in  the  mingled  drama  is  more  vitally  connected  with 
the  subject. 

"' Monthly  Reviczv,  Oct.,  1795,  XVIII,  123.  Cp.  a  much  later  defense  of 
the  species  in  an  article  on  Dryden's  Dramatic  Works  by  H.  Southern,  pub- 
lished in  the  Retrospective  Reviezv,  1820,  I,  160:  "We  are  very  far  from 
being  of  the  faction,  who  would  hunt  down  tragi-comedy  as  a  monster,  to 
which  criticism  should  give  no  quarter :  on  the  contrary,  we  are  disposed 
to  think  that  it  is  the  only  species  of  the  drama,  which  is  calculated  to 
afford  a  just  description  of  human  life  There — all  is  not  gloom — nor  all 
sunshine — pleasant  smiling  vallies  peep  forth  amidst  utter  desolation,  the 
dreariest  waste  and  the  most  inaccessible  rocks  neighbour  a  fertile  soil ;  as 
the  ripe  and  blushing  strawberry  frequently  pillows  itself  on  a  bed  of 
snow,  by  the  side  of  which  it  often  grows  on  the  lofty  mountains  of 
Switzerland.  All  is  unequal,  all  diversified.  The  hero  of  the  court  may  be 
the  hero  of  the  tavern,  and  the  armed  warrior  who  kills  his  thousands,  may 
scare  pacific  passengers  in  the  streets  in  his  drunken  frolics.  In  this  light, 
Shakespear  saw  man,  and  his  tragi-comedy  is  merely  the  history  of  human 
life." 


204 

Whence  tragicomedy  had  taken  its  inception  was  a  question 
that  first  received  serious  attention  in  the  eighteenth  century. 
Dryden  and  others  of  his  time  had  proclaimed  the  species  an 
invention  of  the  Enghsh  theater,  and  the  more  dogmatic  of 
the  Augustans  were  content  to  accept  the  same  judgment. 
Critics  of  more  historical  point  of  view,  however,  were  far 
from  concurring.  Even  Dennis  and  Gildon,  at  the  beginning 
of  the  century,  had  challenged  this  theory.  The  latter  had 
shown  by  the  evidence  of  Plautus  the  existence  of  tragicomedy 
in  classical  times,  and  Trapp  had  offered  additional  data  in 
support  of  the  same  view.^*  Later,  the  growing  historical 
interest  in  the  modern  drama  led  others  to  arrive  at  an  idea  of 
the  medieval  origin  of  tragicomedy.  Bishop  Warburton,  in 
speaking  of  the  early  morality  and  farce,  declared  that  the 
English  theater,  by  jumbling  together  these  two  forms,  had 
"  begot  in  an  evil  hour,  that  mungrel  Species,  unknown  to 
Nature  and  Antiquity,  called  Tragi-Coniedy."^^  Another  stu- 
dent of  the  drama  traced  the  species  to  the  fact  that  ancient 
tragedy,  when  originally  revived  on  the  English  stage,  became 
straightway  debased  with  low  comedy  to  delight  the  populace.^^ 
And,  at  the  beginning  of  the  next  century,  Coleridge — whose 
conception  of  tragicomedy  was  evidently  that  of  his  predeces- 
sors— attributed  the  origin  of  the  form  to  the  necessity  always 
characteristic  of  the  English  stage  of  at  once  instructing  and 
gratifying  the  people,  whence  the  devil  and  the  vice  in  the 
early  religious  drama,  and  the  fool  or  clown  on  the  modern 

^*  Prcelcctiones  Poeticce  (1719),  III,  4:  "  Scio  a  doctissimo  Vossio  de 
antiquorum  prcetextatis  &  togatis  disserente  hsec  adnotari.  (Institut.  Poet., 
Lib.  Ill,  Cap.  VII.)  '  Erant  &  mixtse  ex  pr£etextatis,  &  togatis ;  qure 
tabernariae  appellabantur :  ubi  personae  praetextatae  cum  togatis  jungerentur. 
Festtis  in  Schedis  Poniponii  laeti :  Togatarum  duplex  genus:  prcctextatarum, 
hominum  fastigio ;  quce  sic  appellantur,  quod  togis  pratextis  remp.  ad- 
ministrent :  tabernariarum,  quia  hominibus  excellentibus  eiiam  humiles 
pcrmixti.  &c.  Ex  his  liquet,  si  prretextatae  fabuls  quodammodo  erant 
Tragoedise ;  togatae  autem  Comoediae :  Tabernariam  (quae  mixti  erat  argu- 
menti)  fuisse,  ut  Plautus  vocat,  Tragico-comoediam  &c.  Ejusmodi  est 
Amphitryo  Plautina,  &  Gracormn  Hercules  Licymnius.'  " 

^Warburton,  ed.  of  Shakespear  (1747),  V,  344.  Cp.  also,  Bishop  Percy, 
An  Essay  on  the  Origin  of  the  English  Stage  (1767),  p.  15  of  1793  ed. 

^'Thos.  Hawkins,  The  Origin  of  the  English  Drama  (1773),  I,  p.  ix. 


205 

stage.^'^  Such  observations  mark  the  initial  historical  attention 
that  tragicomedy  received  in  England,  and  have  some  interest 
as  playing  a  part  in  heralding  the  approach  of  the  scientific 
method  of  literary  investigation.^^ 

It  is  chiefly  in  the  field  of  criticism  that  tragicomedy  has 
any  claim  to  attention  after  1700.  On  the  stage,  we  have  seen 
that  it  was  practically  an  unknown  species  from  the  beginning 
of  the  century.  Altered  conditions  and  tastes  relegated  its 
romantic  extravagances  among  outworn  fashions,  while  its 
place  as  intermediate  drama  was  usurped  both  by  tragedy  and 
comedy.  Much  the  same  situation  prevailed  thruout  the  cen- 
tury. Tragicomedy  was  never  revived  as  a  stage  type,^**  tho 
analogies  similar  to  those  traced  between  the  genre  and  senti- 

^^  Literary  Remains,  see  Works  (ed.  of  Prof.  Shedd,  1853),  ^^>  33-  It 
may  be  noted  that  Coleridge  favorably  defines  the  type :  "  Tragi-comedy, 
or  a  representation  of  human  events  more  lively,  nearer  the  truth,  and 
permitting  a  larger  field  of  moral  instruction,  a  more  ample  exhibition  of 
the  recesses  of  the  human  heart,  under  all  the  trials  and  circumstances 
that  most  concern  us,  than  was  known  or  guessed  at  by  yEschylus, 
Sophocles,  or  Euripides." 

^*  Perhaps  the  first  real  historical  consideration  of  tragi-comedy  is  con- 
tained in  Walker's  Revival  of  the  Drama  in  Italy  (1805),  in  which  the 
author  takes  occasion  to  note  various  landmarks  in  the  early  history  of 
the  form,  and  shows  that  it  was  not  only  cultivated  by  the  ancients  but 
first  revived  in  modern  times  by  the  Italians.     See  pp.  54,  262. 

^*  A  few  instances  of  the  use  of  the  title  name  date  from  the  early  nine- 
teenth century,  but  have  no  vital  significance.  They  may  be  briefly  listed 
below  ;  none  were  ever  acted  : — 

The  Key  of  the  Garden,  A  Tragi-Comedy.  By  Serj,  Young,  Dundee, 
1801. 

The  Wife  With  Two  Husbands :  A  Tragi-Comedy,  in  Three  Acts.  Trans- 
lated from  the  French  (of  Pixerecourt),  by  Miss  Gunning,  London:   1803. 

The  Theatric  Count,  a  Tragic  Comedy,  in  five  acts:  from  the  Orgoglio 
Cupitoso,  Conte  teatrino,  of  Gonzago  Bicchieri.  Adapted  for  representa- 
tion on  the  English  Stage,      London,  1809.      See  Biographic  Dramatica. 

The  Wife's  Trial;  or,  The  Intruding  Widow.  A  Dramatic  Poem. 
Founded  on  Mr,  Crabbe's  Tale  of  "  The  Confidant,"  By  C,  Lamb,  (Pub- 
lished in  Blackwood's  Mag.,  Dec,  1828.)  Lamb  in  his  letters  refers  to 
this  piece  as  a  tragicomedy,  doubtless  led  to  do  so  by  his  acquaintance 
with  Elizabethan  drama.  The  play  turns  on  a  serious  domestic  situation 
and  ends  happily.      See  Works  (E.  V.  Lucas,  1903),  VH,  735,  738,  747. 

It  may  be  added  that  a  few  contemporary  pieces  of  the  illegitimate  drama 
were  denominated  Serio-Comic. 


206 

mental  comedy  might  be  found  in  much  of  the  later  eighteenth 
century  drama.  The  approach  of  the  Romantic  movement 
created  a  reawakened  interest  in  the  Elizabethans  and  a  return 
to  favor  of  thrills  and  terrors,  baffled  villains  and  successful 
heroes  and  heroines.  These  new  romantic  tendencies,  appro- 
priated chiefly  by  the  now  flourishing  "  illegitimate "  drama, 
resulted  in  much  that  is  reminiscent  of  the  older  drama — the 
use  of  familiar  motives  and  devices,  striving  for  theatrical 
effect,  the  happy  solution  of  difficulties,  and  other  tragicomic 
measures, — all  of  which  is  seen  to  good  advantage  in  the  dra- 
matic medleys  of  George  Colman  the  younger  and  his  coterie. 
And  something  similar  might  be  said  of  the  French  importa- 
tion of  mclodrame,  which  began  its  long  ascendency  in  England 
at  the  opening  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

With  these  later  aspects  of  the  drama,  however,  we  have 
little  to  do.  As  in  the  case  of  sentimental  comedy,  they  merely 
serve  to  show  how  the  stage  has  never  lacked  for  something 
intermediate  between  tragedy  and  comedy.  English  tragi- 
comedy, properly  so-called,  had  long  since  run  its  course.  A 
product  of  mingled  medieval  and  Renaissance  tradition,  it 
first  came  into  full-blown  existence  on  the  English  stage  in  the 
work  of  Beaumont  and  Fletcher.  During  the  years  of  their 
ascendent  influence  it  flourished  with  ever  increasing  vigor, 
degenerating  into  a  definite  and  conventional  type,  which  by 
1642  was  the  dominant  stage  form.  Kept  alive  during  the 
era  of  closed  theaters,  it  emerged  in  1662,  and,  little  modified 
in  form  or  materials,  continued  to  maintain  itself  on  the 
Restoration  stage.  But  its  heyday  \vas  over.  Beset  by  classi- 
cism and  at  variance  with  popular  taste,  it  steadily  waned  in 
popularity,  and,  before  the  advent  of  the  Augustan  era,  had 
come  to  a  full  stop.  Such  in  brief  is  the  course  of  English 
tragicomedy,  an  extinct  dramatic  kind. 


APPENDIX 

A  List  of  English  Tragicomedies 

The  following  list  is  an  alphabetical  arrangement  of  the 
English  tragicomedies  considered  in  the  preceding  pages,  in- 
cluding all  plays  that  offer  any  documentary  evidence  for  their 
genre  classification  and  such  other  contemporary  pieces  as  ful- 
fil or  approximate  the  conditions  of  the  type  form.  The  titles 
are  reproduced  from  the  earliest  editions,  and  are  quoted  in 
full  or  with  slight  omissions ;  additional  information  is  put  in 
brackets.  The  date  given  represents,  of  course,  the  year  of 
printing,  and  the  place  of  publication  is  London  unless  other- 
wise stated.     Non-extant  tragicomedies  are  printed  in  italics. 

The  Abdicated  Prince :  or,  the  Adventures  of  Four  Years.  A 
Tragi-Comedy,  As  it  was  lately  Acted  at  the  Court  at 
Alba  Regalis,  By  several  Persons  of  Great  Quality. 
(Anon.)     1690. 

Adrasta :  or.  The  Womans  Spleene,  And  Loves  Conqvest.  A 
Tragi-comedie.     Never   Acted.      (John   Jones.)      1635. 

The  Adventures  of  Five  Hours.  A  Tragi-Comedy. — Non  ego 
Ventoscu  Plehis  suffragia  veiior.  Horat.  Fr.  21°.  (Sir 
Samuel  Tuke.)     1662. 

Aggrippa  King  of  Alba :  or,  The  False  Tiberinus.  As  it  was 
several  times  Acted  with  great  Applause  before  his  Grace 
the  Duke  of  Ormond  then  Lord  Lieutenant  of  Ireland,  at 
the  Theatre  Royal  in  Dublin.     From  the  French  of  Mon- 
sieur Ouinault.      (John  Dancer.)      1675. 
fS"- jCP  Aglaura.      (Sir  John  Suckling.)      1638. 
^1^ Alexander  and  Campaspe.     See  Campaspe. 
.   Alfrede  or  Right  Reinthron'd.     Being  a  Tragi-comedie.     1659. 
(Dedicated  to  Lady  Blount  by  her  brother  R.  K.     A  MS. 
in  the  Bodleian  Library.) 

207 


208 

All  Mistaken;  Or  The  Mad  Couple.  A  Comedy,  Acted  by  His 
Majestyes  Servants,  at  the  Theatre  Royal.  Written  by 
the  Honorable  James  Howard,  Esq.     1672. 

/The  Comicall  Historie  of  Alphonsus,  King  of  Aragon,  As  it 
hath  bene  sundrie  times  Acted.     Made  by  R.  G.  (Robert 
Greene).     1599. 
Alvredus  sive  Alfredus,  Tragico-Comoedia  ter  exhibita  in  sem- 
inario  Anglorum  Duaceno  ab  ejusdem  collegii  Juventute, 
Anno  Domini  M.D  C.XIX.     Authore  Guilielmo  Drureo 
nobili  Anglo.     Duaci,     1620. 
The  Amazon  Queen ;  or  the  Amours  of  Thalestris  to  Alexander 
,     ,  the  Great.     A  Tragi-Comedy.     (Never  acted.)     By  Jo. 

' '^'  Weston     Esq.      Licensed     Febr.      11,      1666-7.      Roger 

L'Estrange.     Printed   1667. 
The  Amorous   Warre     A  Tragi-Comoedy.      (Jasper   Mayne, 

D.D.)     1648. 
The  Amourous  Fantasme,  A  Tragi-comedy.     By  Sr.  William 
l-j^        Lower  Knight.     Hage,  1660  (translated  from  the  "Fan- 
tome  Amoureux  "  of  Philippe  Quinault). 
0  A  new  Tragicall  Comedie  of  Apius  and  Virginia,  Wherein  is 
liuely  expressed  a  rare  example  of  the  vertue  of  Chas- 
titie,  by  Virginias   constancy,     in  wishing  rather  to  be 
slaine  at  her  owne  Fathers  handes,  than  to  be  deflowred 
of  the  wicked  ludge  Apius.     By  R.  B.  (Richard  Bower). 

1575- 
Arabia  Sitiens,  or  a  Dreame  of  a  Drye  Yeare,  a  tragi-comcedye. 
By  William  Percy.     1601    (Percy  MS.  No.  2.  Duke  of 
Northumberland's  Library). 

/Arviragvs  and  Philicia.     As  it  was  acted  at  the  Private  House 
in  Black-Fryers  by  his  Majesties  Servants.    The  first  and 
^  second  Part,     (Lodowick  Carlell.)     1639. 

O  The  Bashful  Lover.  A  Tragi-Comedy.  As  it  hath  been  often 
Acted  at  the  Private-House  in  Black-Friers,  by  His  late 
Majesties  Servants,  with  great  Applause.  Written  by 
Philip  Massenger,  Gent.  1655. 
Basileia  seu  Bellum  Grammatical  Tragico-Comoedia.  Sub 
ferias  Nativitatis  acta,  a  Generosis  Scholse  Cranebur- 
gensis    alumnis.      An.    1666.  .  .  .  Samuel    Hoadley    His 


209 

Book  1667.     (B.M.  Add.  Mss.  22725.     See  The  Warr  of 
Grammar.) 
OThe   first   part  of   Bellamira   her   Dream:   or,   the    Love   of 
Shadows.      A    Tragi-Comedy,    The    Scene    Naples    and 
Sicily.     Written  in  Venice,  by  Thomas  KilHgrew.     1663. 
CpThe  second  part  of  Bellamira  her  Dream:  or,  the  Love  of 
Shadows.      A    Tragi-Comedy,    The    Scene    Naples    and 
Sicily.     Written  in  Venice,  by  Thomas  KilHgrew.     1663. 
Bellum   Grammaticale    sive    Nominum   Verbumque   discordia 
civilis  Tragico-Comoedia  Siimmo  cum  applausu  olim  apud 
Oxoniensis  in  Scsenam  producta  et  nunc  in  omnium  ad 
Grammaticam  animos  appellunt  oblectamentum  edita  Lon- 
dini  Excudebant  B.A.  &  T.  Fawcet  Impensis  Joh :  Spenceri. 
1635.      (MS.   in   Bodleian  Library.     See   Bolte,  Andrea 
Guarnas  Bclliim  Grainmaticale  und  Seine  Nachahmimgen, 
Berlin,  1908,  p.  106  ff.) 
Belphegor:  or,  The  Marriage  of  the  Devil;  A  Tragi-Comedy. 
Lately  acted  at  the  Queen's  Theatre  in  Dorset-Garden. 
By  Mr.  Wilson.     1691. 
The   Black  Prince.      (Printed  with  Tryphon  as)   Two  New 
Tragedies ;  The  first  Acted  at  the  Theatre-Royal,  by  his 
Majestie's  Servants;  The  other  By  his  Highness  the  Duke 
of  York's  Servants,    Both  Written  by  the  Right  Honour- 
able the  Earl  of  Orrery.     1669.     (Entered  in  Term  Cata- 
logues Nov.  22,  1669,  as  "A  Tragi-Comedy.") 
The  Bloody  Duke ;  or  the  Adventures  for  a  Crown.    A  Tragi- 
Comedy,    As  it  was  Acted  at  the  Court  at  Alba  Regalis, 
By  several  Persons  of  Great  Quality.     Written  by  the 
Author  of  the  Abdicated  Prince.     1690. 
C  The  Bond-Man:  An  Antient  Storie.     As  it  hath  been  often 
Acted  with  good  allowance,  at  the  Cock-pit  in  Drury-lane : 
by  the  most  Excellent  Princesse,  the  Lady  Elizabeth  her 
Seruants.    By  Philip  Massinger.    1624. 
The  Bond-Man:  or  Love  and  Liberty.    A  Tragi-comedy.    As 
it  is  now  Acted  at  the  Theatre  Royal  in  Drury-Lane.    By 
His  Majesty's  Servants.    1719.     (Altered  from  Massinger 
by  Thomas  Betterton.) 
;^     Campaspe.  Plaved  beefore  the  Queenes  Maiestie  on  newyeares 
15 


210 

/'     day  at  night,  by  her  Maiesties  Children  and  the  Children 
of  Paules.     (lohnLyly.)     1.^84-     (Ed.  of  1591,  "A  tragi- 
cal! Comedie  of  Alexander  and  Campaspe.") 
The  Careles  Shepherdess.    A  Tragi-Comedy  Acted  before  the 
King  &  Queen,  And  at  Salisbury-Court,  with  great  Ap- 
plause.    Written  by  T.  G.  (Thomas  Goffe),     Mr.  of  Arts. 
With  an  Alphebeticall  Catologue  of  all  such  Plays  that 
ever  were  Printed.     1656. 
Celestina:  or,  the  Spanish  Bawd.     A  Tragi-Comedy.     Taken 
from  the  Spanish  Play  of  Mateo  Aleman,  Author  of  Guz- 
man.   Reduc'd  from  21,  as  it  is  in  the  Original,  to  5  Acts; 
and  adapted  to  the  English  Stage.     (J.  Savage?)     1707. 
'    A   Challenge   for   Beautie.     As   it  hath   beene   sundry  times 
Acted,    By  the  Kings  Majesties  Servants:    At  the  Blacke- 
friers,  and  at  the  Globe  on  the  Banke-side.     Written  by 
Thomas  Heywood.     1636. 
C?  Christvs  Redivivvs,  Comoedia  Tragica,  sacra  et  noua.    Authore 
Nicolao  Grimoaldo.     Discite  Ivsticiam  Moniti.     Colonise 
loan.      Gymnicus    excudebat,   Anno   jM.D.XLIII.      (See 
Pub.  Mod.  Lang.  Assn.,  1899,  XIV.) 
The  first  part  of  Cicilia  &  Clorinda,  or,  Love  in  Arms.     A 
Tragi-Comedy,  The  Scene  Lombardy.     Written  in  Turin 
by  Thomas  Killigrew.     1663. 
The  second  part  of  Cicilia  &  Clorinda,  or,  Love  in  Arms.    A 
Tragi-Comedy,  The  Scene  Lombardy.     Written  in  Flor- 
ence by  Thomas  Killigrew.     1663. 
The  Cid,    A  Tragi  comedy,  out  of  French  made  English :  And 
acted  before  their  ]\Iajesties  at  Court,  and  on  the  Cock- 
pit  Stage   in   Drury-lane   by   the   servants   to   both   their 
Majesties.     (Joseph  Rutter.)     1637.     (The  Second  Part 
followed  in  1640.) 
O  The  City-Night-Cap :  Or,  Crede  quod  habes,  &  habes.    A  Tragi- 
Comedy.     By  Robert  Davenport.     As  it  was  Acted  with 
great  Applause,  by  Her  Majesties  Servants,  at  the  Phoe- 
nix in  Drury  Lane.     1661. 
Claracilla  (With  The  Prisoners).    Two  Trag?e-Comedies.    As 
they  were  presented  at  the   Phoenix   in   Drury-Lane,  by 
her   AP'^^    Servants.     Written    by   Tho.    Killigrew,   Gent. 
1641. 


211 

The  Comical  Revenge :  or,  Love  in  a  Tub.,   Acted  at  His  High- 
ness The  Duke  of  York's  Theatre  in  Lincoln's  Inn  Fields. 
(George_E:thprpgp.)    j^^_| 
CThe    Coronation,    A    Comedy.       (James    Shirley    and    John 

Fletcher.)     1640. 
fvThe  Court  Secret,  a  Tragi-comedy :  Never  acted,  But  prepared 
for  the  Scene  at  Black-Friers.    Written  by  James  Shirley. 
Never  printed  before.     1653. 

Craftie  Cromwell,  Or,  Oliver  ordering  our  New  State.  A 
tragi-comedie.  Wherein  is  discovered  the  trayterous 
undertakings  and  proceedings  of  the  said  Nol,  and  his 
levelling  crew.  Written  by  Mercurius  Melancholicus. 
Printed  in  the  yeare,  1648. 

The  Second  part  of  Crafty  Crumwell ;  or  Oliver  in  his  glory 
as  king.  A  Trage  Commedie  Wherein  is  presented,  the 
late  treasonable  undertakings,  and  proceedings,  of  the 
Rebells,  their  murthering  of  Capt.  Burley,  with  their 
underhand  workings  to  betray  their  King.  Written  by 
Marcurius  Pragmaticus.    Printed  in  the  yeare,  1648. 

Cromwell's  Conspiracy.    A  tragy-comedy,  relating  to  our  latter 
times.     Beginning  at  the  death  of  King  Charles  the  First, 
\         and  ending  with  the  happy  restauration  of  King  Charles 
the  Second.    Written  by  a  Person  of  Quality.     1660. 

Custom  of  the  Country.     (John  Fletcher.)     1647. 

The  Tragedie  of  Cvmbeline.  Willigin  Sh^kp^pfarp. — 1623,—. 
OThe  excellent  Comedie  of  two  the  moste  faithfullest  Freendes, 
Damon  and  Pithias.  Newly  Lnprinted,  as  the  same  was 
shewed  before  the  Oueenes  Maiestie,  by  the  Children  of 
her  Graces  Chappell,  except  the  Prologue  that  is  some- 
what altered  for  the  proper  vse  of  them  that  hereafter 
shall  haue  occasion  to  plaie  it,  either  in  Priuate,  or  open 
Audience.  Made  by  Maister  Edwards,  then  beynge 
Maister  of  the  Children.  1571.  (In  the  author's  pro- 
log, "a.  tragicall  commedie.") 

The  Deseruing  Fauorite.  As  it  was  lately  Acted,  first  before 
the  Kings  Maiestie,  and  since  publikely  at  the  Black- 
Friers.  By  his  Maiesties  Seruants.  Written  by  Lodo- 
wicke   Carlell,   Esquire,   Gentle-man   of  the   Bowes,   and 


212 

Groome  of  the  King  and  Queenes  Priuie  Chamber.    1629. 
(Ed.  of  1659,  "A  Tragi-Comedy.") 
'■  The  Deuils  Law-case.     Or,  When  Women  goe  to  Law,  the 
Deuill  is  full  of  Businesse.    A  new  Tragecomoedy.     The 
ig^j        true  and  perfect  Copie  from  the  Original!.    As  it  was  ap- 
prouedly  well  Acted  by  her  INIaipsties  Seruants.    Written 
by  lohn  Webster.     1623. 
Diana's   Grove ;  or,   the  Faithf ull   Genius.     A  tragi-comedy. 
p./C3         (Before  1603.     Anon.,  and  never  acted.     A  MS.  in  pri- 
vate hands.    See  Halliwell,  and  Fleay.) 
^  The  play  of  Dicke  of  Devonshire ;  a  Tragi-Comedy.  c.  1636. 
'^^■'  (Anon.  Eg,  MS.  1994.     Bullen,  Old  Plays,  v.  2.) 

UO  -     The  Distresses.     Sr.  William  Davenant  Kt.     1673. 

The  Divine  Comedian  or  the  Right  Use  of  Plays,  Improved,  in 
n^         a  sacred  Tragy-Comsedy.     (With  a  subordinate  title,  The 

Souls  Warfare.)     By  Rich.  Tuke.     1672.  , 
O  The  Doubtful  Heir,  a  Tragi-comedie,  as  it  was  Acted  in  the 
V,  13  f  private  House  in  Black-Friers,  Written  by  James  Shirley. 

Never  printed  before.     1652. 
O  The  Dukes  Mistris,     As  it  was  presented  by  her  Majesties 
Servants,     At  the  private  House  in  Drury-Lane.     Writ- 
ten by  lames  Shirly.     1638. 
Emilia.     London:   Printed  for  the  Author.     (Anon.)      1672. 
'  '  (In  the  Epilog  the  play  is  called  a  "Tragi-Comedy.") 

0  The  Emperour  of  the  East.    A  Tragae-Comoedie.    The  Scaene 
Constantinople.     As  it  hath  bene  diuers  times  acted,  at 
<p.\'b^         the   Black-friers,   and   Globe  Play-houses,  by  the   Kings 
Maicsties  Seruants.     Written  by  Philip  Massinger.     163?. 
The  English  Stage  Italianiz'd,     In  a  new  Dramatic  entertain- 
ment, called  Dido  and  iEneas :  or.  Harlequin,  a  Butler, 
a   Pimp,   a   Minister  of   State,   Generalissimo,   and   Lord 
High  Admiral:  dead  and  alive  again,  and  at  last  crown'd 
King  of  Carthage,  by  Dido.     A  Tragi-Comedy,  after  the 
Italian  manner ;  by  way  of  Essay,  or  first  step  towards 
the  farther  Improvement  of  the  English  Stage.     Written 
by  Thomas  D'Urfey,  Poet  Laureat  de  Jure.     1727. 
«^The  English  Traveller.     As  it  hath  becne  Publikely  acted  at 
ry\^      the  Cock-Pit  in  Drury-lane:     By  Her  Maiesties  seruants. 


213 

Written  by  Thomas  Hey  wood.     1633.     (In  author's  pre- 
face called  a  "  Tragi-comedy.") 

Erminia.  Or,  The  fair  and  vertuous  Lady.  A  Trage-comedy. 
Written  by  Rich.  Flecknoe.  Printed  for  the  Author, 
MDCLXI.  (Ed.  of  1665,  "  Erminia,  or  the  Chaste  Lady; 
A  Trage-Comoedy.") 

The  Fair  Favorite.  Sr.  William  Davenant  Kt.  1673. 
6  The  Fair  Maid  of  the  Inn.  (John  Fletcher  and  Philip  Mas- 
singer.)  1647.  (Folio  of  1679,  ''A  Tragi-Comedy.") 
O  The  Fair  Maid  Of  The  West.  Or,  A  Girle  worth  gold.  The 
first  part.  As  it  was  lately  acted  before  the  King  and 
Queen,  with  approved  liking.  By  the  Queens  Majesties 
Comedians.  Written  by  T.  H.  (Thomas  Heywood). 
163 1.  (Second  part  separate  title  page  with  same  im- 
print.) 

The  fair  Spanish  Captive:  a  Trage-Comedy.  (Advertised  at 
end  of  The  Nezv  World  of  English  Words,  1658,  as  "  in 
the  Presse,  and  ready  for  Printing."  Also  at  the  end  of 
Wit  and  Drollery,  Joviall  Poems,  1661.) 
O  A  Faire  Quarrell.  As  it  was  Acted  before  the  King  and  diners 
times  publikely  by  the  Prince  his  Highnes  Seruants. 
Written  By  Thomas  Midleton  and  William  Rowley  Gentl. 
1617. 

The  Faithful  Shepherd.  A  Pastoral  Tragi-comedy,  Written 
in  Italian,  by  the  Celebrated  Signer  Baptista  Guarini. 
Translated  into  English,  and  Adorn'd  with  a  new  Set  of 
Cuts.  (Anon.)  1736. 
0  The  Faithftill_31lgpheardesse^  By  Tnhn  Fletcher.  Printed  at 
London  for  R.  Bonian  and  H.  Walley,  and  are  to  be  sold 
at  the  spread  Eagle  ouer  against  the  great  North  dore 
of  S.  Paules.  (n.  d.,  c.  1609/10.  In  author's  preface,  "  a 
pastoral  tragi-comedy.") 

The  False  Favourit  Disgrac'd,  and  the  Reward  of  Loyalty. 
A  Tragi-Comedy,  Never  Acted.  (George  Gerbier 
D'Ouvilly.)      1657. 

The  Female  Rebellion  A  Tragicomedy,  (n.  d.  Anon.  From  a 
MS.  in  the  Hunterian  Museum,  University  of  Glasgow. 
Printed  for  the  first  time,  1872.) 


214 

The  Floating  Island :  A  Tragi-Comedy,  Acted  before  his 
Majesty  at  Oxford,  Aug.  29.  1636.  By  the  Students  of 
Christ-Church.  Written  by  William  Strode,  late  Orator 
of  the  University  of  Oxford,  The  Aires  and  Songs  set 
by  Mr.  Henry  Lawes,  servant  to  his  late  Majesty  in  his 
publick  and  private  Musick.  1655. 
The  Fool  would  be  a  Favourit :  or,  the  Discreet  Lover.     A 

Trage-Comedy.     By  Lodowick  Carlell,  Gent.     1657. 
The  Forc'd  Marriage,  or  the  Jealous  Bridegroom.     A  Tragi- 
/   ' """  comedy.  As  it  is  Acted  at  His  Highnesse  the  Duke  of 

York's  Theatre.     Written  by  A.  Behn.     1671. 
■"  Fortune  by  Land  and  Sea.    A  Tragi-Comedy.    As  it  was  Acted 
with  great  Applause  by  the  Queens  Servants.     Written 
by  Tho  Haywood  and  William  Rowly.     1655. 
^he  Galilean's  Victory     A  Tragj-Comedy  of  Religious  Life. 
iiL-England     In   Four  Acts.     By  Henry  Arthur   Jones._ 
4Q07.     (Later  called  The  Evangelist.) 
The  Generall :  A  Tragi-Comedy.    TCttributed  to  James-Shixk^. 
(Printed  by  Halliwell,  1853,  A  Brief  Description  of  the 
Ancient  &  Modern  Manuscripts  .  .  .  Plymouth  Library.) 
O  The  Gentleman  of  Venice     A  Tragi-Comedie.  '  Presented  at 
the  Private  house  in  Salisbury  Court  by  her  Majesties 
Servants.     Written  by  James  Shirley.     1655- 
Q  The  Gentleman  Usher.     By  George  Chapman.     1606. 

The  German  Princess.    See  A  Witty  Combat. 
O  The  Glasse  of  Gouernement.    A  tragicall  Comedie  so  entituled, 
bycause  therein  are  handled  aswell  the  rewardes  for  Ver- 
tues,  as  also  the  punishment  for  Vices.    Done  by  George 
Gascoigne  Esquier.     1575. 
The  Governor.    A  tragi-comedy.     By  Sir  Cornelius  Formido. 
1656.     (MS.  in  British  Museum.     See  Halliwell.) 
G  The  Great  Duke  of  Florence.     A  Comical!  Historic.     As  it 
hath  becne  often  presented  with  good  allowance  by  her 
]\^jj^ties  Servants  at  the  Phoenix  in  Drurie-Lane.     Written 
by  Philip  Massinger.     1636. 
0     The  Great  Favourite,  Or,  the  Duke  of  Lerma.     As  it  was 
Acted  at  the  Theatre-Royal  By  His  ]\Iajesties  Servants. 
Written  by  the  Honourable  Sir  Robert  Howard.     1668. 


215 

The  Heire  an  excellent  Comedie.  As  it  was  lately  Acted  by 
the  Company  of  the  Reuels.  Written  by  T.  M.  (Thomas 
May.)     Gent.     1622. 

The  History  of  Henry  the  Fifth.     As  it  was  Acted  at  His 

Highness  the  Duke  of  York's  Theatre.     Written  by  The 

Right  Honourable  the  Earl  of  Orrery.     1667. 

O  The  Hon^  Man's.FQttuije.     (John  Fletcher,  Philip  Massinger, 

and  others.)     1647.     (Folio  of  1679,  "  A  Tragi-Comedy.") 

Hoops  into  Spinning-Wheels.     A  tragi-comedy.     Written  by 
a  gentleman   in   Gloucestershire    (John   Blanch.)     Glou- 
cester, 1725. 
O  The  Humorous  Lieutenant.     (John  Fletcher.)     1647.     (Folio 

of  1679,  "A  Tragi-Comedy.") 
O  Hymens  Triumph.  A  Pastorall  Tragicomsedie.  Presented  at 
the  Queenes  Court  in  the  Strand  at  her  Maiesties  mag- 
nificent intertainement  of  the  Kings  most  excellent  Maies- 
tie,  being  the  Nuptials  of  the  Lord  Roxborough.  By 
Samuel  Daniel.  16 15. 
O  The  Imposture  a  Tragi-Comedie,  As  it  was  Acted  at  the 
private  House  in  Black  Fryers.  Written  by  James  Shirley. 
1652. 

The  Inconstant  Ladie.  Acted  at  Blackfriers.  The  Scaene 
Burgundie.  (A.  Wilson,  n.d.  Printed  from  MS.  in  Bod- 
leian by  P.  Bliss,  Oxford,  1814.) 

The  Injured  Princess,  or  the  Fatal  Wager:  As  it  was  Acted 
at  the  Theater-Royal,  By  his  Majesties  Servants.  By 
Tho.  Durfey,  Gent.  1682.  (From  Shakspere's  Cymbe- 
line.) 

Ireland  Preserv'd :  or  the  Siege  of  London-Derry.  Together 
with  the  Troubles  of  the  North.  Written  by  the  then 
Governour  (John  Michelburne).  Part  I.  1705.  (Part  II 
adds,  "A  Tragi-comedy.") 

The  Island  Princess.  (John  Fletcher.)  1647.  (Folio  of  1679, 
"A  Tragi-Comedy.") 

The  Island-Princess:  As  it  is  Acted  at  the  Theatre  Royal, 
Reviv'd  with  Alterations.    By  N.  Tate.  Gent.    1687. 
^     The  Scottish  Historic  of  lames  the  fourth,  slaine  at  Flodden. 
Entermixed  with  a  pleasant  Comedie,  presented  by  Obo- 


!^D 


216 

ram  King  of  Fayeries :  As  it  hath  bene  sundrie  times  pub- 
hkely  plaide.  Written  by  Robert  Greene,  Maister  of  Arts. 
1598. 

The  Tragi-Comedy  of  Joan  of  Hedington.  Scene  Hedington. 
In  Imitation  of  Shakespear.     (Wilham  King.)     1712. 

Juliana  or  the  Princess  of  Poland.  A  Tragicomedy.  As  it  is 
Acted  at  His  Royal  Highness  the  Duke  of  York's  Theatre. 
By  J.  Crown,  Gent.     1671. 

The  Just  General:  A  Tragi  :Comedy,  Written  by  ]\Iajor 
Cosmo:  Manuche.     1652. 

The  lust  Italian.  Lately  presented  in  the  priuate  house  at 
Blacke  Friers,  By  his  Maiesties  Seruants.  (William 
Davenant.)     1630.     (Folio  of  1673,  "a  Tragi-Comedy.") 

The  Key  of, the  Garden.  A  Tragi-Comedy.  By  Serj.  Young. 
Dundee,  1801. 

A  King  and  no  King.  Acted  at  the  Globe,  by  his  ]\Iaiesties 
Seruants :  Written  by  Francis  Beamount  and  ^hn 
KLecJio:-    -i6iQ._ 

King  Edgar  and  Alfreda.     A  Tragi-Comedy.     Acted  at  the 
i  Theatre-Royal,     Written  by  Edward  Ravenscroft,  Gent. 

1677. 

K.  Henry  TV.  with  the  Humours  of  Sjr  iQhn  Falstaff.  A 
Tragi-Comedy.  As  it  is  Acted  at  the  Theatre  in  Little- 
Lincolns-Inn-Fields  By  His  iMajesty's  Servants.  Re- 
vived, with  Alterations  (by  Tho.  Betterton).  Written 
Originally  by  IVIr— SliakfcSpcar.     1700. 

l\..  Henry  IV.  with  the  Humours  of  Sir  John  Falstaff.  A 
Tragi-Comedy,    By  Mr.  W.  Shakespear.    1721. 

The  Knight  of  Malta.  (John  Fletcher  and  Philip  Massinger.) 
1647.  ~"^ 

The  Ladies  Priviledge.  As  it  was  Acted  with  good  allowance 
at  the  Cock-pit  in  Drury-lane,  And  before  their  Majes- 
ties at  White-Hall  twice.  By  their  jMaiesties  Servants. 
The  Author  Henry  Glapthorne.  1640. 
P  The  Ladies  Triall.  Acted  By  both  their  ]\Iajesties  Servants 
at  the  private  house  in  Drury  Lane.     (John  Ford.)     1639. 

The  Lady-Errant :  A  Tragi-Comedy.  Written  by  oVIr  William 
Cartwright,  Late  Student  of  Christ-Church  in  Oxford, 
and  Proctor  of  the  University.    1651. 


217 

Landgartha.  A  Tragie-Comedy,  as  it  was  presented  in  the 
new  Theater  in  Dublin,  with  good  applause,  being  an 
Ancient  story,  Written  by  H.  B.  (Henry  Burnell). 
Printed  at  Dublin  Anno,  1641. 

The  Late  Revolution :  or,  the  Happy  Change.  A  Tragi- 
comedy, As  it  was  Acted  throughout  the  English  Do- 
minions In  the  Year  1688.  Written  by  a  Person  of 
Quality.    1690. 

The  Law  against  Lovers.    Sr.  William  Davenant  Kt.     1673. 

The  Laws  of  Candy.  (John  Fletcher  and  Philip  Massinger.) 
1647.     (Folio  of  1679,  "A  Tragi-Comedy.") 

The  History  of  Lczvis  the  eleventh  King  of  France:  a  Tr age- 
Comedy.  (Advertised  at  end  of  The  Nezv  World  of  Eng- 
lish Words,  1658,  as  "  in  the  Presse,  and  ready  for  Print- 
ing." Also  at  the  end  of  Wit  and  Drollery,  Joviall  Poems, 
1661.) 
O  A  Looking  Glasse  for  London  and  England.  Made  by  Thomas 
Lodge  Gentleman,  and  Robert  Greene.  In  Artibus  Magis- 
ter.     1594.     (MS.  title  page  to  1598  quarto,  "  Tr.  Com.") 

The  Lost  Lady.  A  Tragy  Comedy.  (Sir  Wm.  Berkley.) 
1638. 

Love  and  Plonour,  Written  by  W.  Davenant  Knight.  Pre- 
sented by  His  Majesties  Servants  at  the  Black-Fryers. 
1649. 

Love  Crownes  the  End.  A  Pastorall  Presented  by  the  schollees 
of  Bingham  in  the  County  of  Notingham;  in  the  yeare 
1632.  Written  by  lo.  Tatham  Gent.  1640.  (Ed.  of  1657, 
"a  Tragi-Comedy.") 
®  The  Lovers  Melancholy.  Acted  at  the  priuate  House  in  the 
Blacke-Friers,  and  publikely  at  the  Globe  by  the  Kings 
Maiesties  seruants.     (John  Ford.)     1629. 

The  Lovers  Progress.  (John  Fletcher  and  Philip  Massinger.) 
1647. 

Love's  Kingdom.  A  Pastoral  Trage-Comedy.  Not  as  it  was 
Acted  at  the  Theatre  near  Lincolns-Inn,  but  as  it  was 
written,  and  since  corrected  by  Richard  Flecknoe.  With 
a  short  Treatise  of  the  English  Stage,  &c.  by  the  same 
Author.     1664. 


218 

Love's  Labyrinth ;  or,  The  Royal  Shepherdess :  A  Tragi- 
Comedie.    By  Tho.  Forde,  Philothal.    1660. 

Loves  Victory:  A  Tragi-comedy.     By  WilHam  Chamberlaine 
of  Shaftsbury  in  the  County  of  Dorset.     1658.     (Never 
acted.     Redacted  in  1678  as  Wits  led  by  the  Nose.) 
■^  The  Love-sick  Court,    or  the  Ambitious  Politique.    A  Comedy 

Written  by  Richard  Brome:     1658. 

Love  Triumphant ;  or,  Nature  will  Prevail.    A  Tragi-Comedy. 
,     T  As  it  is  Actecl  at  the  Theatre  Royal,  By  Their  ^lajesties 

Servants.     Written  by  ]\Ir.  Dryden.     1694. 

The  Loyal  Lovers:  A  Tragi-Comedy.  Written  by  Major 
Cosmo  Manuche.     1652. 

The  Loyal  Subject.  (John  Fletcher.)  1647.  (Folio  of  1679, 
"A  Tragi-Comedy.") 

Xlie  Mad  Lover,  ^^^ohn  Fletcher.)  1647.  (Folio  of  1679, 
"  A  Tragi-Comedy.''^ 

Mahomet  and  his  heaven,  or  Epimethea,  graund  Empresse  of 
the  deserts  of  Arabia,  or  a  dreame  of  a  drye  summer,  or 
the  weather-woman;  a  tragoecomoedye.  (MS.  in  Cam- 
bridge Library.  See  Arabia  Sitiens.) 
DThe  ATnid  nf  Honour.  As  it  hath  beene  often  presented  with 
good  allowance  at  the  Phoenix  in  Drurie-Lane,  by  the 
Queenes  Majesties  Servants.  Written  by  Philip  Massin- 
ger.  1632. 
7  •  Q'S'The  Malcontent.  Bv  lohn  Marston.  1604.  (S.  R.  July  5, 
1604,  "  Tragicomedia.") 

Marcelia :  or  the  Treacherous  Friend.  A  Tragicomedy.  As 
it  is  Acted  at  the  Theatre-Royal,  by  His  Majesties  Ser- 
vants.   Written  by  Mrs.  F.  Boothby.    1670. 

Marciano :  or  The  Discovery.  A  Tragi-Comedy,  Acted  with 
great  applause,  before  His  i\Iajesties  high  Commissioner, 
and  others  of  the  Nobility,  at  the  Abby  of  Holyrudhouse, 
on  St.  Johns  night:  By  a  company  of  Gentlemen  (Author, 
William  Clark?)     Edinburgh,  Printed  in  the  year,  1663. 

Marriage  A-la-mode    A  Comedy    Jsllli-SlX^^SS-     '^^7Z- 

The  Alarshal  of  Luxembourg,  upon  his  Death-Bed.  A  tragi- 
comedy.    Done  out  of  French.     (Anon.)     Collcn,   1695. 


219 

O  A  Tragi-Comedy :  Called,  Match  mee  in  London.  As  it  hath 
beene  often  Presented;  First,  at  the  Bull  in  St.  lohns- 
street;  And  lately,  at  the  Priuate-Hotise  in  Drury-Lane, 
called  the  Phoenix.    Written  by  Tho:  Dekker.     1631. 

The  Second  Part  of  the  Play  Called  the  Matrimonial  Trouble. 
A  Come-Tragedy.  By  Lady  Marchioness  of  Newcastle. 
1662,     (The  first  Part  is  entitled  "A  Comedy.") 

Measvre  for  Measure.  (Among  Comedies.)  William  Shake- 
§£eare.     1623. 

The  excellent  History  of  the  Merchant  of  Venice.  With  the 
extreme  cruelty  of  Shylocke  the  lew  towards  the  saide 
]\Ierchant,  in  cutting  a  iust  pound  of  his  flesh.  And  the 
obtaining  of  Portia,  by  the  choyse  of  three  Caskets.  Writ- 
ten by  W__5hakpspparf.     160O. 

]\Iercurius  Britanicus,  or  The  English  Intelligencer.  A  Tragic- 
Comedy,  at  Paris.  Acted  with  great  Applause.  (By  R. 
Braithwait.)     1641. 

Mercurius  Britannicus.     Judicialis   Cen- f  Febris  Judicialis. 
sura; 

vel, 
Curialis  Cura. 

Tragi-Comoedia  Lutetise,   Summo   cum  •  applausu   publice 
acta.     (A  Latin  version  of  the  above,    n.d.      1641  ?) 

The  Mistakes,  or.  The  False  Report :  A  Tragi-Comedy.  Acted 
by  their  Majesties  Servants.  Written  by  Mr.  Jos.  Harris. 
The  Prologue  Written  by  Mr.  Dryden,  The  Epilogue  by 
Mr.  Tate.  1691. 
^  A  Most  pleasant  Comedie  of  Mucedorus.  the  kings  sonne  of 
Valentia  and  Amadine  the  kings  daughter  of  Arragon, 
with  the  merie  conceites  of  Mouse.  Newly  set  foorth, 
as  it  hath  bin  sundrie  times  plaide  in  the  honorable  Cittie 
of  London.  Very  delectable  and  full  of  mirth.  (Anon.) 
1598. 

A  Tragi-Comedy,  called  New-Market-Fayre,  or  a  Parliament 
Out-Cry:  of  State-Commodities,  set  to  sale.  Printed  at 
you  may  goe  look.     1649. 

The  Second  Part  of  the  Tragi-Comedy,  Called  New-Market- 
Fayre,    Or  Mrs.  Parliaments  New  Figaryes.    Written  by 


Sententia  navalis. 


\T/ 


220 

the  ]\Ian  in  the  Moon.     Printed  at  you  may  goe  look. 

1649. 
Nicomecle.    A  Tragi-Comedy,     Translated  out  of  the  French 

Of  Monsieur  Corneille,     By  John  Dancer.     As   it  was 

Acted  at  the  Theatre-Royal  In  Dublin.    Together  with  an 

Exact  Catalogue  of  all  the  English  Stage-Plays  printed, 

till  this  present  Year  1671. 
The  Noble   Choice;   or,   the   Orator.     By   Philip   Massinger. 

(S.R.  Sept.  9,  1653.) 
The  Noble  Ingratitude.     A  Pastoral-Tragi-Comedy.     By  Sr. 

William  Lower  Knight.     Hage,  1659.     (Translated  from 

the  French  of  Philippe  Quinault.) 
A    Tragecomedye  called,   The  Noble  man  Ti'ritten   by   Cyrill 

Tourneur. — S.R.  Feb.  15,  1612. 
The  Noble  Tryal.     A   tragi-comedy.     By  Henry  Glapthorne. 

(S.R.  Nov.  29,  1660.) 
Nothing  Impossible  to  Love.     A  tragi-coiiiedy.     By  Sir  Robert 

Le  Greece.     (S.R.  June  29,  1660.) 
(Ormasdes;    or)    Love    and    Friendship,    a    Tragy-Comedy. 

Written  by-  Sr  William  Killigrew,  Vice-Chamberlane  to 

Her  Majesty.     Oxford,  1666. 
The  Partial!  Law      A  Tragi-Comedy    By  an  unknown  author 

(c.  1615-30).    Now  first  printed  from  the  original  manu- 
script   Edited  by  Bertram  Dobell.     1908. 
The  Passionate  Lovers,     A  Tragi-Comedy.     The  First  and 

Second   Parts.      Twice   presented   before  the   King   and 

Queens  Majesties  at  Somerset-House,  and  very  often  at 

the  Private  House  in  Black-Friars,  with  great  Applause. 

By  his  late  Majesties   Servants.     Written  by  Lodowick 

Carlell,  Gent.     1655. 
The  Phoenix,     As  it  hath  beene  sundry,  times  Acted  by  the 

Children  of  Paules.     And  presented  before  his  Alaiestie. 

1607. 
Philaster.     A  Tragedy.     Written  by  Beaumont  and  FJetcher. 

With  Alterations   (by  George  Colman).     First  acted  at 

the  Theatre-Royal  in  Drury-Lane,  on  the  8th  of  October, 

1763. 
Philaster-  nr  T.nvp  Ij^p  n  blpp^lin^     A  Tragi-cpmedv.    As  it  is 


221 

now  acted  at  His  Majesty's  Theatre  Royal.    Revis'd,  and 

the   Two  last  Acts   new   Written    (by  Elkanah   Settle.) 

1695. 
Philenzo  and  Hippolita.    By  Philip  Massinger.     (S.R.  Sept. 

9..  1653.) 
Phylaster.     Or  Loue  lyes  a  Bleeding.    Acted  at  the  Globe  by 

his  Maiesties  Seruants.    Written  by  Francis  Baymont  and 

lohn  Fletcher.  Gent.    1620. 
^The  Picture.     A  Tragecomedie,     As  it  was  often  presented 

with   good   allowance,   at   the   Globe,   and   Blacke-Friers 

Play-houses,  by  the  Kings  Maiesties  seruants.     Written 

by  Philip  Massinger.    1630. 
Piety  and  Valour;  or  Derry  Defended.     See  Siege  of  Derry. 
CfTh-Q  Platonick  Lovers.     A  Tragsecomedy.     Presented  at  the 

private  House   in  the   Black-Fryers,     By  his   Majesties 

Servants.     The  Authour  William  D'avenant,  Servant  to 

her  Majestic.    1636. 
The    Poor-Mans    Comfort.      A   Tragi-Comedy,      As    it    was 

diuers  times  Acted  at  the  Cock-pit  in  Drury  lane  with 

great  applause.     Written  by  Robert  Dauborne  Master  of 

Arts.    1655. 
The  Presbyterian  Lash :  or,  Noctroffs  Maid  whipt.    A  Tragy- 

comedy    As  it  was  lately  Acted  in  the  great  roome  at  the 

Pye  Tavern  at  Algate.    By  Noctroffe  the  Priest,  and  sev- 

erall  his  parishioners  at  the  eating  of  a  chine  of  beefe. 

The  first  part.     Printed   for  the  use  of  Mr.   Noctroffs 

friends.     (Francis  Kirkman?)     1661. 
The  Princess  of  Cleve,     As   it  was  Acted  At  the  Queen's 

Theatre  in  Dorset-Garden.     By  Nat.  Lee,  Gent.     1689. 

(Entered   in   Term    Catalogues    as    a   "Tragi-Comedy," 

June,  1697.) 
The  Princesse:   or.  Love  at  first  Sight.     A  Tragi-Comedy: 

The    Scene   Naples   and    Sicily.     Written   in    Naples   by 

Thomas  Killigrew.     1663. 
The  Prisoner;   or,   The  Fair  Anchoress  of  Pausilippo.     By 

Philip  Massinger.     (S.R.  Sept.  9,  1653.) 
The  Prisoners  (with  Claracilla).    Two  Tragse-Comedies.    As 

they  were  presented  at  the  Phoenix  in  Drury-Lane,  by 


222 

her  Al"^^  Servants.  Written  by  Tho.  Killigrew,  Gent. 
1641. 
^  The  Right  Excellent  and  famous  Historye,  of  Promos  and 
Cassandra;  Denided  into  two  Commicall  Discourses.  In 
the  fyrste  parte  is  showne,  the  vnsufferable  abuse,  of  a 
lewde  Magistrate:  The  vertuous  behauiours  of  a  chaste 
Ladye :  The  vncontrowled  leawdenes  of  a  fauoured  Cur- 
tisan.  And  the  vndeserued  estimation  of  a  pernicious 
Parasyte.  In  the  second  parte  is  discoursed,  the  perfect 
magnanimitye  of  a  noble  kinge,  in  checking  vice  and 
fauouringe  Vertue :  Wherein  is  showne,  the  Ruyne  and 
ouerthrowe,  of  dishonest  practises:  with  the  aduaunce- 
ment  of  vpright  dealing.  The  worke  of  George  Whet- 
stones Gent.     1578. 

The  Prophetess,  A  Tragical  History.  (John  Fletcher  and 
Philip  JMassinger.)      1647. 

Pseudomagia  A  Latin  tragi-comedy,  by  William  Mewe,  a 
fellow  of  Emmanuel  College,  Cambridge,  1618-26.  (]\IS. 
Emmanuel  Coll.,  Camb.  1.3. 16;  also  jMS.  of  Trinity  Coll. 
Camb.) 
.  The  Queen  and  Concubine.  A  Comedie  By  Richard  Brome. 
1659. 

The  Queen  of  Corinth.  (John  Fletcher  and  Philip  JMassinger.) 
1647.      (Folio  of  1679,  "A  Tragi-Comedy.") 

The  Queen,  or  the  Excellency  of  her  Sex.     An  Excellent  old 
,  „         Play.     Found  out  by  a  Person  of  Honour,  and  given  to 
the  Publisher,  Alexander  Goughe.     (Anon.)      1653. 

The  Queene  of  Arragon.  A  Tragi-Comedie.  (William  Hab- 
ington.)     1640. 

The  Quccnes  Arcadia.  A  Pastorall  Trage-comedie  presented 
to  her  Maiestie  and  her  Ladies,  by  the  Vniuersitie  of 
Oxford  in  Christs  Church,  In  August  last.  (Samuel 
Daniel.)      1605. 

The  Oueenes  Exchange,  A  Comedy,  Acted  with  generall 
applause  at  the  Black-Friers  By  His  Majesties  Servants. 
Written  by  Mr.  Richard  Brome.     1657. 

Tragi-Comcedia,  Cui  in  Titulum  inscribitur  Regicidium,  per- 
spicacissimis  judiciis  accuratius  perspecta,  pensata,  com- 


223 

probata ;   Authore  Ric :   Brathwait,   Armigero,   utriusque 
Academise  Alumno.     1665. 

The  Reign  of  Hellebore,  King  of  Rien  de  Tout.  A  Tragi- 
comedy.     (Anon.)      Printed  at  York.     1760. 

The  Religious.    Lady  Marchioness  of  Newcastle.     1662. 

The  Renegade,  A  Tragsecomedie.  As  it  hath  beene  often 
acted  by  the  Oueenes  Maiesties  seruants,  at  the  priuate 
Play-house  in  Drurye-Lane.     By  Philip  Massinger.     1630. 

Reparatus,  sive,  Depositum.  Tragico-Comoedia,  prima  pars. 
Seu  Reparatus  desperabundus.  By  William  Drury.  1628. 
^  The  Restauration :  or.  Right  will  take  Place.  A  Tragicomedy. 
Written  by  George  Villiers,  late  Duke  of  Buckingham. 
From  the  Original  Copy,  never  before  Printed.  17 14. 
(An  alteration  of  Beaumont  and  Fletcher's  Philaster.) 

The  Rival-Ladies.  A  Tragi-Comedy,  As  it  was  Acted  at  the 
Theatre  Royal.  Nos  hccc  noznmus  esse  nihil.  (John 
Dryden.)      1664. 

The  Rivals.  A  Comedy.  Acted  by  His  Highnes  the  Duke  of 
York's  Servants.     (William  Davenant.)     1668. 

Romeo  and  Juliet.  An  unprinted  alteration  by  James  Howard, 
c.  1662.     See  Downes'  Roscius  Anglicanus  (1708),  p.  22. 

The  Royal  Cuckold:  or.  Great  Bastard.  Giving  an  account  of 
the  Birth  and  Pedegree  of  Lewis  le  Grand,  the  First 
French  King  of  that  Name  and  Race.  A  Tragy-com- 
edy.  As  it  is  Acted  by  his  Lnperial  Majesty's  Servants, 
at  the  Amphitheater  in  Vienna.  Translated  out  of  the 
German  Language,  by  Paul  Vergerius.     1693. 

The  Royal  Lovers.     See  The  Loyal  Lovers. 

The  Royal  Shepherdess.  A  Tragi-comedy,  Acted  By  his 
Highness  the  Duke  of  York's  Servants.  (Thomas  Shad- 
well.)     1669. 

The  Royal  Voyage,  or  the  Irish  Expedition :  A  Tragicomedy, 
Acted  in  the  Years  1689  and  90.  (Anon.)  1690. 
^-  The  Royall  King,  and  The  Loyall  Subject.  As  it  hath  beene 
Acted  with  great  Applause  by  the  Oueenes  Maiesties 
Servants.  Written  by  Thomas  Hey  wood.  1637. 
D  The  Royall  Master ;  As  it  was  Acted  in  the  new  Theater  in 
Dublin :     And    Before    the    Right    Honorable   the  Lord 


224 

Deputie  of  Ireland,  in  the  Castle.  Written  by  lames 
Shirley.     1638. 

The  Royall  Slave.  A  Tragi-Comedy.  Presented  to  the  King 
and  Queene  by  the  Students  of  Christ-Church  in  Oxford. 
August  30,  1636.  Presented  since  to  both  their  Majesties 
at  Hampton-Court  by  the  Kings  Servants.  (William 
Cartwright.)     Oxford,  1639. 

Sapientia  Solomonis  :  Drama  Comicotragicum.  (Anon.  B.M. 
IMS.  No.  20061.  See  Shakspere  Jahrbuch,  XXXIV, 
224.) 

The  Scottish  Politick  Presbyter,  Slain  by  an  English  Inde- 
pendent: Or;  the  independents  victory  over  the  pres- 
byterian  party.  The  rigour  of  the  Scotch  government, 
their  conniving  and  bribing;  the  lewdness  and  debauchery 
of  elders  in  secret.    A  tragi-comedy.     (Anon.)     1647. 

The  Sea  Voyage.  (John  Fletcher  and  Philip  Massinger.) 
1647. 

Secret  Love;  or,  the  Maiden-Queen,  as  it  is  acted  by  His 
Majesty's  Servants  at  the  Theatre  Royal,  Written  by 
John  Dry  den,  Esq.     1668. 

The  Seege  of  Urbin.  A  Tragy-Comedy.  Written  by  Sr  W' il- 
liam  Killigrew,  Vice-chamberlaine  to  Her  IMajesty.  Ox- 
ford, 1666. 

Selindra.  A  Tragy-Comedy.  Written  by  Sr  William  Killi- 
grew.    Oxford,  1666.    f-  '-'  '<  V^- 

The  Tragicocomedie  of  Serpents  By  Lodowik  Lloid  Esquier 
1607. 

The  Shepheards  Holy-Day.  A  Pastorall  Tragi-Comsedie. 
Acted  Before  Both  Their  Maiesties  at  White-Hall,  by  the 
Oueenes  Servants.  With  an  Elegie  on  the  death  of  the 
most  noble  Lady,  the  Lady  \^enetia  Digby.  Written  by 
J.  R.  (Joseph  Rutter).     1635. 

The  Siedge:  Or,  Love's  Convert,  A  Tragi-Comedy.  Writ- 
ten by  Mr  William  Cartwright,  Late  Student  of  Christ- 
Church  in  Oxford,  and  Proctor  of  the  University.     165 1. 

The  Siege.     Sr.  William  Davenant  Kt.     1673. 

The  Siege  and  Surrender  of  ]\Ions.  A  Tragi-Comedy.  Expos- 
ing the  Villany  of  the  Priests,  and  the  Intrigues  of  the 
French.     (Anon.)     1691. 


225 

The  Siege  of  Babylon:   As  it  is  Acted  at  the  Dukes  Theatre. 

Written  by  Samuel  Pordage,  of  Lincolns-Inn,  Esq;     1678. 
The  Siege  of  Derry.     A  Tragi-Comedy.     (Anon.)     1692. 
The  Siege  of  Troy,  a  Tragi-Comedy,  as  it  has  been  often 

acted    with    great    Applause.     (Elkanah     Settle.)     n.d. 

(1703-) 
Solon:  or,  Philosophy  No  Defence  against  Love.     A  Tragi- 
Comedy.     With  the  Masque  of  Orpheus  and  Euridice. 

Written  by  Captain  Martin  Bladen.     1705. 
The  Spanish  Bawd  represented  in  Celestina  Or,  the  Tragicke- 

Comedy  of  Calisto  and  Melibea.     (James  Mabbe,  under 

pseudonym  of  "Don  Diego  Puede-ser,")     1631. 
The  Spanish  Curate.     (John  Fletcher  and  Philip  Massinger.) 

1647. 
The  Spanish  Friar,  or  The  Double  Discovery.     Acted  at  The 

Duke's  Theatre.     Written  by  John  Dryden,  Servant  to 

His  Majesty.     1681. 
.The  Spanish  Gipsie.     As  it  was  Acted  (with  great  Applause) 

at  the  Privat  House  in  Drury-Lane,  and  Salisbury  Court. 

Written    by    Thomas    Midleton,    and    William    Rowley. 

Gent.     Never  Printed  before.     1653. 
The  Step-Mother,  A  Tragi-Comedy,  Acted  with  great  Applause 

at  the  Theatre   in   Little   Lincolns-Inn-Fields,     By   His 

Highness   the   Duke   of  York's   Servants.     (Sir   Robert 

Stapylton.)      1664.         /?^/,/;^/, 
The   Strange  Discovery:    A  Tragi-Comedy.     Written   by  J. 

Gough.  Gent.     1640. 
The    Successfull   Straingers,     A   Trage-Comedy :    Acted   by 

their  Majesties  Servants,  at  the  Theatre  Royal,    Written 

By  William  Mountfort.     1690. 
The    Swisser     Acted    At    The    Blackfriers     (A.    Wilson.) 

1 63 1.      (B.   M.     Add.    Mss.    36759.     Edited   by   Albert 

Feuillerat,  Paris,  1904.) 
Talpse;   sive   Conjuratio   Papistica.     Tragico-Comaedia.     Au- 

tore    Thom:    Singleton.     Scripta    Febr:    7    mo     1688-9. 

(MS.  in  Bodleian.) 
The   Tempest.     (Among   Comedies.)     William   Shakespeare. 

1623. 
16 


u& 


226 

The  Theatric  Count.  A  Tragic  Comedy,  in  five  acts;  from 
the  Orgoglio  Capitoso,  Conte  teatrino,  of  Gonzago  Bicchi- 
eri.  Adapted  for  representation  on  the  EngHsh  stage. 
(Anon.)     1809. 

Timoleon:  or,  The  Revohition.     A  Tragi-Comedy.     (Anon.) 

'Tf  1697. 

Trappohn  Creduto  Principe;  or,  TrappoHn  suppos'd  a  Prince: 
ja  J  An    Itahan    Tragi-Comedy.     The    Scene,    part    of    Italy. 

Written  by  Sir  Aston  Cokain.     1658. 
The  Triumphs  of  Virtue.     A  Tragi-Comedy,    As  it  is  Acted 
/7^  at    the     Theatre-Royal,     by     His     Majesty's     Servants. 

(Anon.)     1697. 
Tryphon    (with  The   Black  Prince).     Two  New   Tragedies; 
^  The  first  Acted  at  the  Theatre-Royal,  by  his  ^Nlajestie's 

^'    *  Servants ;  The  other  By  his  Highness  the  Duke  of  York's 

Servants.     Both  Written  by  the  Right  Honourable  the 
Earl   of   Orrery.     1669.     (IMS.    in    Bodleian,    "  Triphon, 
a  traje-comedy.") 
The  Twins.     A  Tragi-Comedy.     Acted  at  the  Private  House 
0      at  Salisbury-Court,  with  general  Applause.     Written  by 
('.     '         W.  Rider,  Master  of  Arts.     1655. 

The  Two  Noble  Kinsmen:    Presented  at  the  Black- friers  by 

the    Kings    Maiesties    servants,    with    great    applause: 

Q  Written  by  the  memorable  Worthies  of  their  time ;  Mr. 

\  John  Fletcher,  and  Mr.  William  Shakspeare  Gent.     1634. 

(S.  R.  Apr.  8,  1634-5,  "a  TragiComedy.") 

The  two  noble  ladies  and  the  converted  conjurer.  ...  A  trage- 

comicall  historic  oftentymes  acted  with  approbation  at  the 

Red   Bull   in   St.   Johns   Streete  by  the  company  of  ye 

Revells.     (Anon.     Eg.  MS.   1994.)     n.  d.   (c.  1619-22.) 

The  Unfortunate  Fortunate.     A  Tragi-comedy.     By  Benjamin 

Garfield  Esq;  (Mentioned  only  in  Robert  Baron's  Pocula 

Castalia,  1650,  p.  112.) 

The  Unnatural  Mother,  the  Scene  in  the  Kingdom  of  Siam. 

As  it  is  now  Acted  at  the  New  Theatre  in  Lincoln's-Inn- 

'^^•^'        Fields,  by  His  Majesty's  Servants.     Written  by  a  Young 

Lady.     1698.     (Term    Catalogues,    Feb.    1698,    ''  Love's 

Reward ;  or  The   unnatural   Mother.     A   Tragi-comedy. 

Written  by  Madam  .") 


227 

The  Tragicomoedi  of  the  vertuous  Octauia.  Done  by  Samuel 
Brandon.     1598. 

A  Very  Woman,  Or  the  Prince  of  Tarent.  A  Tragi-Comedy. 
As  it  hath  been  often  acted  at  the  Private-House  in 
Black-Friers,  by  his  late  Majesties  Servants,  with  great 
Applause.     Written   by   Philip   Massenger,   Gent.     1655. 

The  Vestal  Virgin;  or,  the  Roman  Ladies.  A  Tragedy.  By 
Robei*t  Howard.     1665. 

The  Wandring  Lover.    A  Tragy-Comedie.     Being  Acted  sev- 

erall  times  privately  at  sundry  places  by  the  Author  and    /j-/j, 
his    friends    with    great    applause.     Written    by    T.    M. 
(Thomas  Meriton),  Gent.     1658. 

The  Warde,  a  Tragicomedy,  written  by  Thomas  Neale. 
(Dated  Sept.  16,  1637.  MS.  Rawl.  Poet.  79.  in  the 
Bodleian.) 

The  Warr  of  Grammar  a  Tragick-Comedy  Acted  by  the 
Scholars  of  Cranebrook  School  more  than  once  not  with- 
out Applause.  In  which  the  whole  vulgar  Grammar  with 
something  of  the  Authors  own,  is  festiveously  handled. 
(By  Samuel  Hoadly,  1666.  See  Basileia  seu  Bellum 
Grammaticale.) 

The  Weakest  goeth  to  the  Wall.  As  it  hath  bene  sundry 
times  plaide  by  the  right  honourable  Earle  of  Oxenford, 
Lord  great  Chamberlaine  of  England  his  seruants.  (By 
Thomas  Dekker?)      1600. 

The  Widdow  Ranter  or,  The  History  of  Bacon  in  Virginia.      ,^(~ 
A    Tragi-comedy,    acted    by    their    Majesties    Servants. 
Written  by  Mrs.  A.  Behn.     1690. 

A  Wife  for  a  Month.  (John  Fletcher.)  1647.  (Folio  of 
1679,  "A  Tragi-Comedy.") 

The  Wife  With  Two  Husbands:  A  Tragi-Comedy,  in  Three 
Acts.  Translated  from  the  French  (R.  C.  Guilbert  de 
Pixerecourt),  by  Miss  Gunning.     1803. 

The  Wife's  Trial;  or,  the  Intruding  Widow.  A  Dramatic 
Poem.  Founded  on  Mr.  Crabbe's  Tale  of  "  The  Con- 
fidant." Charles  Lamb.  1828.  (Called  a  "tragi-com- 
edy "  by  author  in  letters  to  P.  G.  Patmore,  July  19,  1827, 
and  to  Bernard  Barton,  Aug.  28,  1827.) 


228 

The  Winters  Tale.      (Among  Comedies.)       William   Shake- 
speare.    1623. 
O   A  Tragi-Coomodie,  called  The  Witch ;     Long  since  acted  by 
His   Maties   Servants   at  the   Black-Friers.     Written   by 
Tho.  Middleton.     (MS.  n.  d.  c.  1627.     Ed.  by  I.  Reed, 
1778.) 
0  The  Witch  of  Edmonton     A  known  true  Story.     Composed 
into  A  Tragi-Comedy     By  divers  well-esteemed   Poets; 
William  Rowley,  Thomas  Dekker,  John  Ford,  &c.     Acted 
by  the  Princes  Servants;  often  at  the  Cock-Pit  in  Drury- 
,Lane.     once  at   Court,   with   singular   Applause.     Never 
printed  till  now.     1658. 
Wits  Led  by  the  Nose;  or,  A  Poet's  Revenge:     A  Tragi- 
Comedy,     As  it  is  Acted  at  the  Theatre  Royal.     1678. 
(An  anonymous  redaction  of  Chamberlaine's  Love's  Vic- 
tory. ) 
A  Witty  Combat:  or,  the  Female  Victor.     A  Trage-Comedy, 
'  ^  As  it  was  Acted  by  Persons  of  Quality  in  Wliitson-Week 

with  great  applause.     Written  by  T.  P.  (Thomas  Porter.) 
Gent.     1663.     (Same  play  as  the  German  Princess.) 
Women   Pleas'd.     (John   Fletcher.)     1647.     (Folio  of   1679, 

"  A  Tragy-Comedy.") 
The  Womens  Conquest :  A  Tragi-Comedy.     As  it  was  Acted 
[  ,'  j^,        by  his  Highness  the  Duke  of  York's  Servants.     Written 
\'H''  by  the  Honourable  E.  H.  (Edward  Howard.)     1671. 

The  Young  Admirall.     As  it  was  presented  By  her  ]\Iajesties 
,^,         Servants,  at  the  private  house  in  Drury  Lane.     Written 
\  ■  "'        by  James  Shirly.     1637. 

Young  King:  or,  the  Mistake.  As  'tis  acted  at  his  Royal 
Highness  The  Dukes  Theatre.  Written  bv  A.  Behn. 
1683. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

This  bibliography  represents  the  principal  sources — exclu- 
sive of  plays — which  have  contributed  more  or  less  directly 
to  the  preparation  of  the  essay.  Less  important  items  in- 
corporated from  time  to  time  in  the  text  or  footnotes  are, 
as  a  rule,  not  repeated  here. 

Allen,  H.  W.     Cclestina  or  the  Tragi-Comedy  of  Calisto  and 

Mclihea.  .  .  .  Also  an  Interlude  of  Calisto  and  Mclchca. 

Edited   with   Introduction   and   Appendices    (Library   of 

Early  Novelists).    London,  1908. 
Arber,  E.     A  Transcript  of  the  Register  of  the  Company  of 

Stationers    of    London,     15^4-1640.     5     vols.     London, 

1875-1894. 
The  Term  Catalogues,  iddS-i/og.    3  vols.    London,  1903-06. 
Arnaud,  C.    Etude  siir  la  zne  et  les  oeiwres  de  I'abbe  d'  Aubig- 

nac   et  sur  les   Theories   dramatiques  au  XVIIe  siecle. 

Paris,  1887. 
Aubignac,  Frangois  Hedelin  Abbe  d'.     La  Pratique  du  Thea- 
tre (Paris,  1657).    English  translation.  The  Whole  Art  of 

the  Stage.     London,  1684. 
Baker,  D.  E.     Biographia  Dramatica  (1764,  continued  by  I. 

Reed  and  S.  Jones  to  1812).     3  vols.     London,  1812. 
Bertana,  E.     La  Tragedia  (Storia  dei  Generi  Letterari  Ital- 

iani).     Milano,  1906. 
Bilancini,  P.     Gianibattista  Giraldi  e  la  Tragedia  Italiana  nel 

sec.  XV L     Aquila,  1890. 
Bond,  R.  W.     The  Complete  Works  of  John  Lyly.     3  vols. 

Oxford,  1902. 
Brunet,  J.  C.    Manuel  du  Libraire  et  de  I' Amateur  de  Livres. 

5  vols.     Paris,  1860-64. 
Brunetiere,  F.     L'Evolution  d'lm  Genre,  La  Tragcdie.     Revue 

des  Deux  Mondes,  VI,.  1901. 

229 


230 

Bullen,  A.  H.  The  Works  of  Francis  Beaumont  and  John 
Fletcher.  \"ariorum  Edition.  3  vols,  issued.  London, 
1904-. 

Chambers,  E.  K.  The  Medieval  Stage.  2  vols.  Oxford, 
1903. 

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INDEX 


The  Index  contains  the  names  of  authors  and  the  titles  of  works — in- 
cluding bibliographical  citations — mentioned  in  the  text  or  footnotes  of  the 
foregoing  treatise.  The  Appendix  and  the  Bibliography  are  not  indexed. 
More  important  references  are  printed  in  bold-faced  type. 


Abdicated  Prince,  The,  182. 

Acolastus,  21. 

Addison,  Joseph,  192,  197,  iggn. 

Adelphorum,  gru 

Adrasta,  145. 

Adventures    of    Five    Hours,    The, 

i6on. 
.lEschylus,  4,  52,  205n. 
Aglaura,  145,   164. 
Agrippa,  King  of  Alba,  181. 
Alcaeus,  8,  9n. 
Alcestis,  X,  4,  29. 
Alexander    and    Campaspe,    yy,    78, 

92,  93,  94- 
Alexander,  Sir  William,  89. 
Alexto  and  Angelica,  i2on. 
Alfreda      or      Right      Reinthroned, 

i56n. 
All  for  Money,  66. 
All  Mistaken,  160. 
Allen,  H.  W.,  4Sn. 
Alphonsus  of  Aragon,  79,  81,  82,  87. 
Altile,  29,  30,  31,  32. 
Alvredus  sive  Alfredus,  145. 
Amadis  de  Gaiila,  46n. 
Amazon  Queen,  The,   166-167,    181. 
Amicizia.     See  Pescara,  La. 
Aminta,  34. 

Amorous  War,  The,  144. 
Amphitruo,   6-8,   9,    19,   20,   24,   28, 

3in,  37,  40,  50,  71,  i97n. 
'Avd^iov,    sive     Lazarus     Redivivus, 

i2n. 
Anaxandrides,  8. 
Angiolgabriello     di      Santa     Maria, 

33^' 


Antivalomeni,   2>2. 
Apollo  e  Leucotoe,  2jn. 
Apologetico    de   las   comedias   espa- 

fiolas,  50. 
Apologia    (of    De   Nores),    ion,   37, 

4in;      (of     Savio),     42-43;      (of 

d'Eredia),  44. 
Apology  for  Poetry,  71-72,   91,   93, 

94. 
Apology  for  the  Life  of  Colley  Gib- 
ber, An,  2oin. 
Appiiis  and  Virginia,  61,  62-63,  65, 

75,  80,  92. 
Apuleius,  71. 
Arabia  Siticns,  103. 
Ariosto,  36,  40,  41. 
Aristophanes,  5,  8n,  51. 
Aristotle,  xii,  2,  3,  4,  8,  31,  32,  33, 

35.    36,    38,    39,    40,    4in,    42,    64, 

137. 
Armin,  Robert,  87. 
Arrenopia,    30,    80. 
Ars  Poetica,  6. 
Art  of  Poetry,   i92n. 
Art  Poetique,  55. 
Arte  Nuevo  de  Hacer  Comedias,  4x1, 

Sn,  49- 
Arviragus  and  Philicia,  140. 
As   You  Like  It,  85. 
Asmondo,    33n. 

Astrophel  and  Stella,  73n,  93. 
Aubignac,  F.  H.  Abbe  d',  4.  7,  185, 

i86n. 
Audignier,  Vital  d',    iign. 
Auto    de   moralidade,   ^yn. 


234 


235 


Bale,   Bishop,  65. 

Balticus,  Martinus,  21. 

Bang,  W.,  142x1. 

Baron,  Robert,  i56n. 

Barran,  Henry  de,  i8n,  54. 

Barreda,  Francisco  de  la,  sn,  51,  58. 

Bashful  Lover,  The,  xiii,   131,    132, 

135. 
Basileia   sen   Bdliim    Grammaticale, 

i78n. 
Bauch,   Gustav,  2 in, 
Beaumont   and   Fletcher    (see,    also, 

Beaumont,  Francis,  and  Fletcher, 

John),    X,    xiii,    xiv,    xv,    81,    87, 

96,    97,    100,    io7n,    no,    111-113. 

114,   124,   130,  139,  141,  148,   157, 

160,   162,   169,  179,  184,  189,  i93n, 

i99n,   206. 
Beaumont,  John,   io7n,   in,  114. 
Behn,    Mrs.    Aphra,    177,    178,    184, 

i87n. 
Believe  as  You  List,  131, 
Bellamira,    154. 
BcUum     Grammaticale,     88-89,     92, 

94,   i4Sn,   i78n. 
Belphegor,   177. 
Beni,  Paolo,  42,  43. 
Berkeley,    Sir    William,    i2on,    142. 
Bertana,  E.,  33n. 
Betterton,  T.,    i87n,    189. 
Betulius,  Xystus,  21,  24. 
Biographia    Dramafica,    xvn,    i8in, 

i83n,    igon,  205n. 
Black    Prince,    The,    163,    164,    165, 

181,  186. 
Blackzvood's  Magazine,  205n. 
Bladen,  Martin,   190. 
Blanch,  John,   igon. 
Blind  Lady,  The,  165. 
Bliss,  P.,   i43n. 
Bloody  Duke,  The,   182, 
Blount,   Edward,    78n. 
Bodin,  J,,   9on. 

Boileau-Despreaux,    Nicolas,    173. 
Bolte,  Johannes,  88n. 
Boothby,  Mrs.  F.,   166. 


Bond,  R.  W.,  77n. 

Bondman,  The,  131,  132,  189. 

Bossu,  Le,  Rene,  173. 

Bower,   Richard,   62,   64,    75,   92. 

Bradamante,  54,  55,  56,  80. 

Braga,  T.,  23n. 

Braithwait,    Richard,    151. 

Brandon,   Samuel,  89,  92. 

Bright,  B.  H.,   io3n. 

Brome,  Richard,   i47n. 

Buckingham,  George  Villiers,   Duke 

of,   180,   199. 
Bullen,  A.  H.,  84,  i29n. 
Buonguglielmi,  F.  S.,  27n. 
Burnell,    Henry,    146. 
Butcher,   S.   H.,  3n. 

Calderon.    148. 

Caledonia,   igon. 

Calepino,  Ambrogio,  7. 

Calisto  and  Melibea,  4in,  74,  75. 

Calisto  y  Melibea,  Tragicomedia  de. 

See  Celestina. 
Calistus,   The    tragical   Comedie   of, 

74,   93- 
Calprenede,  La,   i78n, 
Cambyses,  65,  68,  71. 
Canace,  8,  3on,  3in. 
Cangenia,  La,  2  7n. 
Captivi,  4,  24. 
Carde  of  Fancie,  82,  93. 
Careless  Husband,  The,  193. 
Careless  Shepherdess,   The,   145. 
Carlell,     Lodowick,    xiii,     139,     140, 

142,   150,  162. 
Cartwright,    William,    139,    143-144, 

145,  ISO,  162. 
Casaubon,  I.,  5. 
Cascales,  Francisco,  50. 
Cast  ell  of  Perseverance,  The,   15. 
Castle  of  Otranto,  The,  203. 
Caxton,  William,  yS, 
Cecaria,  2-j. 
Celestina,    45-46,     74,     75,     93,     94, 

148,  i9on. 
Certain  Notes  of  Instruction,   70. 


236 


Cervantes,  121,  128. 

Challenge  for  Beauty,  The,  125. 

Chamberlayne,  William,    155. 

Chambers,    E.    K.,    23n. 

Change  of  Croxvns,  The,  17611. 

Chapman,  George,  99,   100. 

Chassang,  A.,    i9n. 

Chaucer,  Geoffrey,   i/n,  63n,  119. 

Chrestien,  Florent,  6. 

Christiis    Rediviz'us,     4,     isn,     22n, 

23-24,  61,  92,  93,  94. 
Cibber,  Colley,   193,  201. 
Cicero,   10,  38. 
Cicilia  and  Clorinda,   154. 
Cid,    The,    x,    59n,    146,    148,    181, 

185. 
Cigarrales  de  Toledo,   52n. 
Cinthio,    Giraldi,    3n,    sn,    8,    29-32, 

3,3,   40,    57,    66n,   80,   98,    100. 
City  Night-Cap,  The,  140,  142,  i7on. 
Claricilla,   144. 
Clark,  William,   i6in. 
Cleomones,  17411. 
Cleopatra,  7211. 
Clcopatre,   i78n. 
Cloetta,  W.,  28n. 
Cloridon  and  Radianianta,  y6. 
Coello,  Antonio  de,  i6on. 
Cokayne,  Sir  Aston,   146. 
Coleridge,  S.  T.,  204,  205n. 
Collier,  J.   P.,  83n,   ism. 
Collins,  J.  C,  Son. 
Colman,  George,   189,   193,    199. 
Colman,  George   (the  younger),  206. 
Comedia  de  Capo  y  Espada,  47-48, 

57,    121- 
Comedy  of  Errors,  The,  85n. 
Comical  Revenge,   The,    i73n. 
Commentary  illustrating   the  Poetic 

of  Aristotle,  A,  192x1,   igSn,  i9gn. 
Common  Conditions,  75. 
Common-Wealth     of     Women,     A, 

I  Son. 
Comcedotragwdia,  ixn,  8-9,  23n. 
Compendia    delta   Poesia    Tragicom- 

ica,  40. 


Confidant,  The,  205n. 

Conflict    of    Conscience,    The,    i6n, 

65,  69. 
Conscious  Lovers,  The,  193. 
Considerationi     intorno     al     Pastor 

Fido,  42. 
Contarini,  Francesco,  33n. 
Contile,   Luca,   27-28,    3on. 
Conversatio7is  of  Jonson  unth  Drum- 

mond,  io7n. 
Cooke,  William,   i88n,   200,  2oin. 
Corneille,    Pierre,  x,    146,    159,    181, 

i8s. 
Coronation,  The,   136,   139. 
Cortes  de  Jupiter,  46n. 
Court  Secret,   The,    136,    i37n,    138. 
Crabbe,   George,   205n. 
Craftie   Cromwell,   152. 
Creizenach,  W.,   6n,    i2n,    ign,   2 in, 

23n,  46n,  79n,  8on,  84n,   logn. 
Cresfonte,  II,   32. 

Critical  Reflections  on  the  Old  Eng- 
lish  Dramatick    Writers,   ig%n. 
Crofton,  Zackary,  152. 
Croix,  Antoine  de  la,  iSn,  54. 
Cromwell's   Conspiracy,    153. 
Crowne,  John,   177. 
Cumberland,   Richard,    189. 
Custom    of   the   Country,   The,    120, 

121. 
Cyclops,  5-6,  37,  58. 
Cymbeline,  xiii,  113,   114,   180. 

Daborne,   Robert,    129, 

Damon   and  Pythias,   61-62,   64,   66, 

67,  72,  75,  92,  93,  94. 
Dancer,  John,  181,   i87n. 
Daniel,   Samuel,   72n,   89,    103,   104- 

106,   108,   109,   129,   145. 
Dante,  36,  40,  41. 
Davenant,    William,    xiii,    124,    139, 

140,  141,  148,  156,  157,  158,  i6on, 

162. 
Davenport,  R.,  i29n,   140,   142. 
Day,  John,    i02n. 
De  Arte  Poetica,  sn. 


237 


De  Moratin,  L.  F.,  4711. 

De  Nores,  Giasone,   ion,  35-38,  41, 

42. 
De  Poeta,  211. 
De    safyrica     Graecontin    poesi     et 

Romanorum  satyra,  511. 
Dekker,  Thomas,  84,  124,   127,   129, 

137- 
Dennis,  John,  192,  197,  204. 
Deserving  Favorite,   The,   xiii,   142. 
Devil's  Law  Case,  The,  129. 
Dialoghi,  44. 

Dialogues  of  the  Dead,  igSn. 
Diana's  Grove,  103. 
Dick  of  Devonshire,  129. 
Dictionarum  Latino   Graecum,   yn. 
Diderot,  D.,  195. 
Dinolochus,  9. 
Discorsi   (of   Cinthio),    31. 
Discorsi    poetici    (of    Summo),    42, 

43- 
Discorso  (of  Summo),  32. 
Discourse    concerning    the    Original 

and   Progress   of  Satire,   A,    175. 
Discourse  of  English  Poetry,  83. 
Distracted  Emperor,   The,  84. 
Distresses,  The,  140,   i6on. 
Divine  Comedian,  The,  i78n. 
Divine  Comedy,  The,  40. 
Dobell,  B.,   i44n. 
Doll's  House,  The,  x. 
Don  Duardos,   46n. 
Don  Sebastian,   172x1,   i74n,    187. 
Donatus,  9, 
Donatus,  A.,   3n. 
Doubtful  Heir,  The,  136,  i37n,  138, 

139. 
D'Ouvilly,    G.    G.,    155. 
Downes,  John,   i64n. 
Dramatick    Poets,    An    Account    of 

the  English,  xv  n. 
Drury,  William,  145, 
Dryden,    John,    xiii,    158,    160,    162, 

166,  168-175,  i83n,  184,  i8s,  186, 

187,  188,  189,  I93n,  197,  198,  200, 

203n,  204. 


Du  Ryer,  Pierre,  57. 

Duke   of  Millayn  and   the  Marques 

of  Mantua,  76. 
Duke's  Mistress,   The,   136,   137. 
Durfey,  Thomas,   180,  igon. 
Dutch  Courtesan,  The,   100. 
Duthilloeul,  H.  R.,  i45n. 
Dyce,  A.,   i37n. 
Dymock,   John,    104. 

Edgar,  186. 

Edward  I,   87. 

Edwards,    Richard,    61-62,    63n,    64, 

65,  67,  70,  75,  76,  92,  94,  95. 
Electra,   4. 
Elements     of    Dramatic     Criticism, 

The,  i88n,  200,  20 in. 
Emilia,    178,    i79n. 
Empeiios  de  Seis  Horas,  Los,   i6on. 
Emperor  of  the  East,  The,  131,  132, 

135,   iSSn. 
Endimion,   77. 
Enfant  Prodigue,  U ,   ig6n. 
English    Stage,    Some    Account    of 

the,    XV  n. 
English      Stage     Italianized,      The, 

igon. 
English    Traveller,    The,    126,     130, 

194. 
Epicccne,  109,  i24n. 
Epitia,  30,  66n. 
Eredia,  Luigi  d',  44. 
Erotilla,   33n. 
Erminia,   159. 
Essay     of    Dramatic    Poetry,     162, 

168-170,    173,   20in. 
Essay   on   the  Art,  Rise   and   Prog- 
ress of  the  Stage,  An,  igSn. 
Essay  on  the  Origin  of  the  English 

Stage,  An,  204n. 
Etherege,   George,    i73n, 
Eumenides,   4. 
Euripides,  x,  4,  5,  6,  29,  2^!  '36,  37, 

39,  40,  52,  58,  2osn. 
Evangelist,     The.       See     Galilean's 

Victory. 


238 


Evelyn,  John,    150. 

Every  Man   out  of  his  Humor,  411, 

9  in. 
Example,  The,  137. 
Exortagdo  a  la  Guerre,  46n. 
Expostulatio  Spongia,   51. 

Fair  Favorite,  The,  141. 

Fair  Maid  of  Bristow,  The,  g7n,  98. 

Fair  Maid  of  the  Inn,  The,  120,  121, 

122. 
Fair  Maid   of   the   West,   The,   125, 

126,   130. 
Fair  Quarrel,  The,  128. 
Fair  Spanish  Captive,  The,   I56n. 
Faithful     Shepherdess,      The,     103, 

106-108,   112,   115. 
Falls  of  Princes,  The,  i7n. 
False  Favorite  Disgraced,  The,  155. 
Famous  Victories  of  Henry  V,  The, 

87. 
Fantasme  Amorous,  The,   154. 
Fatal  Marriage,   The,   198,    199. 
Felix  and  Philiomena,   76. 
Female  Rebellion,   The.   i66n. 
Ferdinandus  Servatus,   19-20,   22. 
Feuillerat,  A.,   i43n. 
Figueroa,  Cristobal  Suarez  de,  son. 
Filomena,  47n. 
Fils  Natiirel,  he,   195, 
Fioretti,    Benedetto,    ion,   44, 
First  Fruits,   83. 
Fleay,  F.  G.,  xv  n,   103,   I2gn,   I37n, 

I  Sin. 

Flecknoe,  Richard,   141,   159,   184. 

Fleire,  The,   loi. 

Fletcher,  John,  103,  104,  106,  109, 
III,  113,  114-124,  I2S,  126,  128, 
129,  130,  131,  132,  133,  13s,  136, 
138,  139.  145.  146,  148,  ISO,  iSSn, 
180. 

Floating  Island,   The,   144. 

Florilcgium,   8n. 

Florio,  John,  83. 

Foffano,  F.,  44n. 

Fontanini,  G.,  28n. 


Fontenelle,  B.  Le  B.,  ix. 

Fool  Would  be  a  Favorite,  The, 
142,    i7on. 

Force  of  Blood,  The,  iign. 

Forced  Marriage,  The,  178. 

Ford,   John,    127,    133,    i42n. 

Forde,  Thomas,  156. 

Formido,  Sir  Cornelius,  145. 

Fortune  by  Land  and  Sea,  125. 

Fountain,    John,    iS9. 

Fragmcnta  Comicorum  Graecorum, 
8n. 

Fragoa  d'Amor,  46n. 

French  Tragi-Comedy,  The,  xi  n, 
S3n,  S6n,   i8in. 

Friar  Bacon  and  Friar  Bungay,  79, 
81. 

Fukcell,  Upian,  69. 

Furness's  New  Variorum  Shakes- 
peare,  logn. 

Galilean's   Victory,   The,  vii  n. 
Gallathea,  77. 
Garfield,  Benj.,   i56n. 
Garnier,  Robert,  54,  56,  89. 
Garrick,   David,    iggn. 
Garrick  Correspondence,  iggn. 
Gascoigne,    George,   6^,   64,    65,    70, 

71,  92,  94- 
Gay,  John,  191. 
Gayley,  C.  M.,  i3n,  i6n. 
General,   The.   137. 
Genest,   J.,   xv  n,    issn,    i62n,    i64n, 

i65n,  i76n,  i8on,  i89n. 
Gentleman     of     Venice,     The,     136, 

i37n>    139.    140,    iSSn. 
Gentleman  Usher,  The,  99,  loi. 
George  a  Greene,  79,  81. 
German   Princess,   The,    i62n. 
Gildon,  Charles,   192,   197,  iggn,  200, 

204. 
Giraldi.     See   Cinthio. 
Giraldus,  Gregorius,  9. 
Giudizio  di  Paride,  II,  27n. 
Glapthorne,   Henry,    142. 


239 


Glass  of  Government,  The,  i6n,  6i, 
63-64,  6s,  7on,  78,  80,  92,  93,  94. 
Gnaphaeus,  William,   21. 
Goffe,  Thomas,  145. 
Goldsmith,    Oliver,    19211,    193. 
GoliaSj  22,. 
Gosse,   E.,    13711. 
Gosson,    S.,   75. 
Gough,  J.,   140. 
Governour,   The,   145. 
Gozze,  Gauges  de,  43. 
Grand  Cyrus,  The,   154. 
Gray,  C.   H.,   i42n. 
Great  Duke  of  Florence,   The,   131, 

133,   134,   135. 
Great  Favorite,  The,  165,  186. 
Grecian  Daughter,  The,   19311. 
Greene,    Robert,    3011,    7311,    76,    78- 

82,  83,  84,  87,  92,  93,  94,  95,  98, 

113- 

Greg,  W.  W.,  xv  n,  3311,  losn. 

Greville,   Fulke,   89. 

Grimald,  Nicholas,  4,  i3n,  2211,  23- 
24,  61,  92,  94. 

Grosart,  A.  B.,  8in. 

Grotius,  Hugo,   511. 

Grounds  of  Criticism  in  Tragedy, 
The,   173,   186. 

Guardian,  The,   12,2. 

Guarini,  G.  B.,  xi,  2,  3,  5,  6,  10, 
26,  27,  2,2,  33-41,  42,  49,  51,  52, 
55,  57,  58,  59",  102,  103,  104, 
105,   106,   107,   108,   112,    145,    146. 

Guarnas,   Andreas,  88. 

Guazzoni,  Diomisso,  27n. 

Gunning,   Miss,  205n. 

Habington,  William,    142. 

Hain,  L.,    i9n. 

Hall,  Bishop,  90. 

Halliwell,  J.  O.,  xv  n,  i03n,  i37n. 

Hamlet,  198,  i99n,  203. 

Hardy,    Alexandre,    53,    54,    56-57, 

59,  102,  140,  148. 
Harington,  Sir  John,  72,  88. 
Harpocration,   gn. 


Harris,  Jos.,  179. 

Hart,  Alexander,   i2on. 

Hart,  J.   M.,  23n. 

Hatcher,  O.  L.,   iisn. 

Hawkins,  Thomas,  204n. 

Hazlitt,  W.  C.,   i03n. 

Hecatommithi,   30,   66n,   80. 

Heir,  The,  124. 

Helen,  4,  29. 

Helidorus,  140. 

Henry  IV,  88,   i87n. 

Henry    V    (of   Shakspere),    88;    (of 

Orrery),  163,  164,   165. 
Henry   VI,  88. 
Herdclito  y  Democrito,   son. 
Herpetulus,   the  blczv  knighte,  76. 
Heywood,     Thomas,     98,     124-126, 

130,  194. 
Hilaro-tragadia,  9-10,   36,  s7>  40. 
Historia  Bcrtica,  190,  20,  21. 
Historia    Poetarum,    Graecorum    ac 

Latinorum,  gti. 
History  of  England,  The,  igin. 
Hoadley,  Samuel,   i78n. 
Honest    Man's    Fortune,    The,    120, 

121. 
Hoops  into  Spinning-Wheels,    igon. 
Horace,  6,  36,  39,  62,  70. 
Horestes,  68,  71. 
How   a   Man    may    Choose    a   Good 

Wife  from  a  Bad,  97. 
Howard,  Edward,   i66n,  176. 
Howard,  James,  160,  i64n. 
Howard,  Sir  Robert,  164,  165,  i68n. 
Humorous     Lieutenant,     The,     iis, 

117,  118,   IS7,  i8on,   189. 
Hutten,  Leonard,  88,  92. 
Hymen's  Triumph,  ios-106. 

Ibsen,  Henrik,  x. 

Imposture,  The,  136,   i37n,   138. 

Inconstant  Lady,  The,  143. 

Injured  Princess,   The,   180. 

Ion,   4,   29. 

Iphigenia,   4,   29. 

Ireland  Preserved,  igon. 


240 


Isaccio,  33n. 

Island  Princess,  The,  115,  117,   180, 

189. 
Isle  of  Gulls,  The,  losn. 

Jack  Juggler,  69. 

Jack  Straw,  87. 

James  IV,  Scottish  Historic  of,  3011, 

80-81,  84,  87,  95,  98. 
Joan  of  Hedington,   19011. 
Jones,  Henry  Arthur,  vii  n. 
Jones,  John,  145. 

Johnson,  Dr.  Samuel,  201-202,  203. 
Jonson,    Ben,    4n,    91,    96,    98,    104, 

io7n,    109,    i24n,    146. 
Juliana,   177. 
Just  General,  The,  155. 
Just  Italian,  The,   140. 

Kennet,  Bp.,  i52n. 

Ker,  W.  P.,  i69n,  i7on,  i73n,  i7Sn, 

i86n,  i87n,  20in. 
Key  of  the  Garden,  The,  205n. 
Killigrew,    Thomas,    139,    140,    141, 

143,  144,   148,  154,   157,  160. 
Killigrew,     Sir     William,     160-161, 

184. 
King,  Dr.  William,   igon. 
King  and  No  King,  A,  111-113,  114, 

115,    ii6n,    117,    i5in,    157,    179, 

i8on,   186,  189. 
King  Edgar  and  Alfreda,  177. 
Kirkman,  Francis,   i52n,  1870. 
Kitzscher,  Johann  von,  20. 
Knack  to  knowe  a  Knaue,  A,  65. 
Knight   in   the  Bnrnyng  Rock,  The, 

76. 
Knight    of    Malta,    The,    115,     117, 

123. 
Knight's  Tale,  The,  63n. 
Knolles,  Richard,  9on. 
Konigk   in  Arragona,   7gn. 
Kyd,  Thomas,  82n,  93. 

La    Chaussce,    Nivelle    de,    et    la 
Comcdie  Larmoyante,   ig^n. 


Lady  Cornelia,  The,  iign. 
Lady  Errant,  The,  143,  145. 
Lady's  Privilege,  The,  142. 
Lady's  Trial,  The,  133. 
Lancaster,    H.    C,    xi  n,     i8n,    ign, 

2in,  27n,  46n,  53,   ssn,   56,   i8in. 
Landgartha,   146. 
Langbaine,     G.,     xv  n,     i56n,     163, 

1650,   I72n,    180,    i87n. 
Lanson,  G.,   i94n. 
Lamb,  Charles,  2osn. 
Lamm  for  London,  A,  87. 
Late  Revolution,  The,   182. 
Law  against  Lovers,  The,  157,  isSn. 
Lawrence,  W.  J.,   i46n. 
Laws    of    Candy,     The,     115,     117, 

118. 
Laws  of  Poetry,  The,  i98n. 
Lear,  King  (alteration  by  N.  Tate), 

i64n,    180,    192. 
Lee,  Nathaniel,   177. 
Leir,  King,  87. 

Letters  on  the  Drama,   i99n,  201. 
Lewis  XI,  The  History  of,   is6n. 
Like   Will  to  Like,  69. 
Lillo,  George,  194. 
Lindsay,   W.   M.,   7n. 
Lisander     and     Calista,     A     Tragi- 

comicall  History  of,  iign. 
Lisandro  y  Roselia,  46n. 
Littleton,   Adam,    isin. 
Liviera,  G.  B.,  32. 
Lloyd,  Lodowick,   103. 
Lobkowitz,  J.  C.,  48n. 
Lodge,  Thomas,  79,  92. 
Logan,  W.  H,,  i6in. 
London  Merchant,  The,  194. 
London  Prodigal,  The,  98. 
Longer  thou   livest.  The,  69. 
Looking  Glass  for  London  and  Eng- 
land, A,   i6n,  79-80,  92,  93. 
Lope  de  Vega,  3n,  4,   5,  47-49-  5i. 

52,  56,  57,  97n,   121,   148. 
Lopez  de  Vega,  Antonio,   son. 
Lost  Lady,  The,   142. 
Lounsbury,  T.  R.,  i96n. 


241 


Love  and  Honor,  xiii,   141,    157. 

Love  Crowns  the  End,   145. 

Love    Triumphant,     170,     171,     173, 

174,  199. 
Lover's  Melancholy,  The,  133. 
Lovers'   Progress,   The,    119,    130. 
Love's  Kingdom,  159. 
Love's  Labyrinth,   156. 
Love's  Metamorphoses,  yj. 
Love's  Pilgrimage,  123. 
Love's  Victory,  155. 
Love-sick  Court,  The,  14711. 
Lowe,   R.  W.,  20 in. 
Lower,  Sir  William,   154,   181. 
Loyal  Lovers,  The,  155. 
Loyal  Subject,   The,    115,    117,    118, 

i24n,    i55n,   157,    189. 
Lucas,   E.  v.,  205n. 
Lupton,   Thomas,   66. 
Lydgate,   John,    i7n. 
Lyly,  John,  72,  76-78,  92,  95. 
Lyttelton,   Lord,   igSn. 

Mabbe,  James,  45n,   i48n. 

Mad  Lover,  The,  115,   118,  157. 

Magdalena  Evangelica,  z^n, 

Magri,  Gerotheo  di,  27n. 

Mahomet  and  his  Heaven,  io3n. 

Maid  of  Honor,  The,  131,  133,  134, 
135- 

Maid's  Tragedy,  The  (alteration  by 
Waller),    i64n,    180. 

Mairet,  Jean,   57,   58. 

Malacreta,   Giovanni,  42,   43. 

Malcontent,  The,  99,  100,  loi,  102, 
128. 

Manuche,   Cosmo,    154-155,    184. 

Marcelia,    166-167. 

Marciano,    16  in. 

Marcchal  de  Luxembourg,  Mon- 
sieur le,   1 8 in. 

Marie  Magdalene,  69. 

Marlowe,  Christopher,  78,  79,  84, 
87,  90. 

Marriage  a-la-Mode,  170,  171,  172, 
173,    I93n, 

17 


Marsan,  J.,  33n. 

Marshall  of  Luxembourg,  The,  181. 

Marsi,  Antonio,  27. 

Marston,  John,   99,   100,    128. 

Martineche,    E„   49n, 

Massinger,     Philip,     xiii,     115,     119, 

124,    125,    128,    130-135,    136,    138, 

150,  i55n,  184,  189,  igSn. 
Match  Me  in  London,   129,    137. 
Matrimonial  Trouble,  i6in. 
May,  Thomas,   124. 
Mayne,  Jasper,   144. 
Mayor  of   Qiieenborough ,  The,  io2n. 
Measure   for   Measure,   x,    66,    100, 

157. 
Meineke,  A,,   8n,   gn. 
Mejor    Principe    Trajano    Augusto, 

El,   51. 
Melancholicus,    Mercurius,    152, 
Menendez,   y   Pelayo,   M.,  49n,   son, 

Sin,  S2n. 
Merchant   of    Venice,    The,    85,    86, 

193". 
Mercurius   Britanicus,    151. 
Meres,  Francis,  65. 
Meriton,  Thomas,   156. 
Mesa,  Cristobal  de,  son. 
Mewe,  William,    145. 
Michelburne,  John,  igon. 
Midas,    77. 
Middletown,     Thomas,     100,     io2n, 

124,    127-128,    130, 
Milton,  John,    i68n. 
Minturno,   A.   S.,   2n. 
Minutes    of    the    Revels    at    Court, 

76,   83. 
Miseries     of     Enforced     Marriage, 

The,   98. 
Mistakes,    The,    179. 
Molina,   Tirso   de,   52. 
Monk's  Tale,  The,  17x1. 
Monthly  Review,   The,  203n. 
Momus  Triumphans,   i87n. 
Morel-Fatio,  A.,  48n,  49n,  son,  52n, 

i7on. 
Motteux,   Peter  Anthony  de,   i8on. 


242 


Mountfort,  William,  17811. 
Mucedorus,  84,   151. 
Much  Ado,  85,  86,   157. 
Munday,  Anthony,  74n. 
Mufion,  Sancho  de,  46n. 

Nao  d'amores,  46n. 

Nash,  Thomas,    73n,   82n,   93,   94. 

Nature  of  the  Four  Elements,  The, 
68. 

Neale,  Thomas,  145. 

Neuer  too  Late,  82n. 

New  World  of  English  Words,  The, 
i56n. 

Newcastle,  Margaret,  Duchess  of, 
i6in. 

New-Market-Fay  re,  153. 

Nice  Valor,  The,  123. 

Nichols,  J.,  i78n. 

Nicomede,   181,   i87n. 

Nisieli,  Udeno.  See  Fioretti,  Bene- 
detto. 

Noble  Choice,  The,  i3in. 

Noble  Ingratitude,  The,  154. 

Noble  Tryal,  The,  i42n. 

Nobleman,  The,  109. 

Nouvclle  tragicomiquc.  La,  55n. 

Observations  sur  le  Cid,  sgn. 

CEdipus,  5,   51. 

Ogier,  Frangois,  6,  57-58. 

Old  Fortunatus,  i6n,  65,  84. 

Ondedei,  G.,  33n. 

Orbecche,  2gn. 

Orestes,  4,  29. 

Origin  of  the  English  Drama,  The, 

204n. 
Orlando   Furioso    (of    Ariosto),    40, 

54;   (of  Greene),  79,  81. 
Ormasdes,   160,   161. 
Oroonoko,   198,   199. 
Orrery,  Earl  of,  163,  i$4n,  165. 

Painter's    Palace    of    Pleasure,    73, 

124. 
Palamon  and  Arcyte,  63n,  75. 


Pandosto,  Szn. 

Pantagruel,  S2n,   logn. 

Papillon,  Marc  de,  ssn. 

Parallel  of  Poetry  and  Painting,  A, 
174- 

Paris  and   Vienna,   76. 

Parliament  of  Love,  The,  132. 

Partial  Law,  The,  85n. 

Pasajero,  El,  son. 

Passionate   Lovers,    The,    140. 

Pastor  Fido,  xi,  10,  33-45,  103,  104, 
105,   108,   igon. 

Patient  Grissel,  97. 

Paulilli,  Anello,  27n. 

Peele,   George,  87, 

Pembroke,    Countess   of,    72n,    89. 

Penn,   John,    i99n,   201. 

Pepys,  Samuel,  loS,  i6on,  i62n, 
i76n. 

Percius  and  Anthomiris,   76. 

Percy,  Bishop,  204n, 

Percy,  William,  103. 

Perymedes,  8in. 

Pescara,  La,  27-28. 

Pescetti,  Orlando,  43. 

Petrarch,   40,   41. 

Philaster,  x,  xiii,  xiv,  111-113,  114, 
115,  116,  118,  123,  142,  157,  179, 
180,  189,  199;  (alteration  by 
Duke  of  Buckingham?),  180, 
199;  (alteration  by  Settle),  180; 
(alteration  by  Colman),  189,  193, 
i99n. 

Philemon  and  Philecia,  76. 

Philcnco  and  Hippolita,   13 in. 

Philicinus,   Petrus,   24n. 

Phillips,  Edward,  i68n. 

Phillyda  and  Choryn,  76. 

Phlyacographia,  sn,   ion. 

Phoenix,  The,   100. 

Photius,  9n. 

Pickering,  John,  68. 

Picture,  The,  131,  133,  134. 

Piety  and   Valor,   i83n. 

Pilgrimage  to  Parnassus,  The,  9 in. 

Pixerecourt,  Rene  de,  205n. 


243 


Planetomachia,  8 in. 

Plato,   10. 

Platonic  Lovers,  The,   140. 

Plautus,    4,    5,    6-8,    9,    19,    20,    22, 

23,  25,   28,   3on,   3in,   35,   z^,   27, 

40,  4in,   45,   50,   71,    igyn,  204. 
Playes  Conftited  in  fine  Actions,  75. 
Play-house  scuffle.  The,   19 in. 
Plaza   universal    de    todas   ciencias, 

son. 
Pocula  Cast  alia,   i56n. 
Poeticarum    Institutionum,    4n,    sn, 

7n,  204n. 
Poetices,  4n,  sn,  6n. 
Poetics    of   Aristotle,    The,    3,    3 in, 

39,   40. 
Poggi,   Beltramo,   27n. 
Politician,  The,   137. 
Pomponius  Lstus,  18. 
Poor-Man's   Comfort,   The,    129. 
Pope,   Alexander,    188. 
Pordage,    Samuel,    166. 
Porphyry,  ix  n,  8n. 
Porphyry    the    Philosopher    to    His 

Wife  Marcella,   ix  n. 
Porter,   Thomas,    i6in. 
Portia  and  Demorantes,   76. 
Potentia  d'amore,  2jt\, 
Pralectiones   PoeticcE,   2oon,    204n. 
Pragmaticus,  Marcurius,   152. 
Pratinas,  37,  39. 
Pratique    du    Theatre,    La,    411,    Sn, 

18s. 
Predor   and  Lucia,   76. 
Preface    Generale    de    la    Tragedie 

&    des   six   Comedies   de   ce   Re- 

cueil,  X  n. 
Preface  to   Four  New  Plays,   i65n, 

i68n. 
Preface     to     Theatrum     Poetarum, 

i68n. 
Presbyterian  Lash,  The,   152. 
Preston,  Thomas,   65,  68. 
Pride  of  Life,  62x1. 
Princess,  The,   144. 
Princess  of  Clevc,  The,  177. 


Prisoner,  The,  13 in. 
Prisoners,  The,   144. 
Proginnasmi  Poetici,  ion,  44. 
Promos  and  Cassandra,  3on,  66-67, 

70,    7S. 
Prophetess,  The,  120,  131. 
Pseudomagia,  14s. 
Puttenham,  George,  6s,  72. 
Pye,  H.  J.,  192,  i98n,  i99n,  203. 

Queen  and  Concubine,  The,  i47n. 
Queen  of  Aragon,  The,  142. 
Queen    of   Corinth,    The,    115,    117, 

128. 
Queen,   or  Excellency   of  Her  Sex, 

The,   142. 
Queen's  Arcadia,   The,  103,  104-105, 

106. 
Queens'  Exchange,  The,  i47n. 
Quinault,    Phillippe,    154,    181. 
Quinn,  A.  H.,  97n. 
Quintilia,  27x1. 

Rabelais,   S2n,   logn, 

Racine,  IS9. 

Rambler,   The,   201. 

Rapin,  Paul  de,  173. 

Rare  Triumphs  of  Love  and  For- 
tune, The,   75. 

Rastell,  John,  74. 

Ratto  d' Helena,  II,  27x1. 

Ravenscroft,   Edward,    176. 

Regicidium,  iS^n. 

Reign  of  Hellebore,  The,  igon. 

Religious,  The,  i6in. 

Remarks  on  the  Plays  of  Shakes- 
pear,  igyn,  2oon. 

Renegado,   The,   131,    132,   133,    13s. 

Rennel,  Gabriel,  19 in. 

Reparatus  sive  Deposituni,   145. 

Repertorium  Bibl.,   ign. 

Replica   (of  Summo),  43. 

Republic,  The,  10. 

Restauration,  The,   180. 

Retrospective   Revieiv,   The,   203n. 


244 


Revival  of  the  Drama  in  Italy,  The, 

28n,  20511. 
Revolter,  The,   18311. 
Rewards  of  Virtue,  The,   159. 
Reynolds,   Sir  Joshua,  202,   203. 
Rhinthon  of  Tarentuni,  511,  9-10,  26, 

37,   39,  40. 
Ricardo  del  Turia,  311,  511,  50-51,  58. 
Rider,    William,    140. 
Rigal,   E.,   5sn,   56. 
Rimas,  son. 
Risposfa    (of    Beni),    42;    (of    Pes- 

cetti),   43. 
Rival    Ladies,    The,    160,    168,    169, 

170. 
Rivals,  The,   157. 
Rojas,  Fernando  de,  45n. 
Romagem   de  Aggravados,  46n. 
Romeo  and  Juliet   (alteration  by  J. 

Howard),   i64n. 
Roscius   Anglicanus,    i64n. 
Rosenbach,  A.  S.  W.,  75n. 
Rossi,  v.,   33n,  4on,  44n. 
Rowe,  John,   151. 

Rowe,  Nicholas,  196-197,   198,  2oon. 
Rowley,  William,  125,  127,  128. 
Roxbnrghe  Library,  The,  74n,  75n. 
Royal  Cuckold,  The,  181. 
Royal  King  and  Loyal  Subject,  The, 
.     124-125,    130. 
Royal  Lovers,   The,   issn. 
Royal  Master,  The,  136. 
Royal  Shepherdess,   The,   159. 
Royal  Slave,  The,   143,  144. 
1         Royal  Voyage,  The,  183. 
Rutter,  Joseph,   145,   i46n. 
Rymer,  T.,  173,  i8on,  186,   192. 

St.  Patrick  for  Ireland,    137. 
Salza,    Abd-El-Kader,    28n. 
Samson  Agonistes,    i68n. 
Sanchez,  Alonso,   51, 
Sanscrit  Drama,  A  Bibliography  of 

the,   X  n. 
Sapidus,   Joannes,    i2n. 


Sapientia  Solomonis,  24-25,   61,  92, 

93. 
Savage,  J.,   igon. 
Savio,  G.,  6,  42. 
Scaliger,  J.  C,  4,  5. 
Schack,   A.   F.   Von,   46n,   48n,  49n, 

son,   S2n. 
Schelandre,  Jean  de,   57. 
Schelling,   F.    E.,   xv  n,    i2in,    i27n. 
Schoepper,  Jacobus,  21. 
Schuyler,   M.   Jr.,  x  n. 
Scottish     Politick     Presbyter,     The, 

152. 
Scotto,  G.  M.,  27n. 
Scuderi,  Georges  de,  59n. 
Sea   Voyage,  The,  122,   i8on. 
Second    and    third    blast    of    retrait 

from  plaics  and  Theaters,  A,  74, 

93. 
Secret    History    of    Lezi'is   XIV    of 

France,  The,  i8in. 
Secret  Love,  168,  169,  170,  172. 
Secunda  Pastorum,  15. 
Selene,   32. 
Selindra,  160,   161. 
Seneca,  13,  19,  30,  31,  4s,  49.  89. 
Serpents,    The    Tragicocomedie    of, 

103. 
Serra  da  Estrella,  46n. 
Settle,   Elkanah,    iSo,    190. 
Shadwell,  Thomas,   159. 
Shakspere,  William,  x,  xiii,  66,   76, 

8in,   84,   85-87,   95,  96,    100,   102, 

113-114,    119,    157,    169,    179,    180, 

i87n,     189,     192,     196,     197,     198, 

i99n,  201,  202,   203n. 
Sharpman,  Edward,   loi. 
Shedd,  Prof.,  2osn. 
Shelley,  P.  B.,  ix  n. 
Shepherd's  Holiday,  The,   145. 
Sherman,  S.  P.,   I42n. 
Shirley,    James,    xiii,    124,    135-139, 

140,    150,    155,    184. 
Sidney,   Sir   Philip,   67,   71-72,    73n, 

76,  90,  91,  93,  94,   146,   168. 
Siege,  The,   141. 


245 


Siege  and  Surrender  of  Mons,  The, 

183. 
Siege  of  Babylon,  The,  166-167. 
Siege  of  Derry,  The,  183. 
Siege  of  Troy,  The,  190. 
Siege  of  Urbin,  The,  160,  161, 
Siege;  or  Love's  Convert,  The,  143. 
Siegert,   Ed.,   16411. 
Silvanire,  58. 
Singleton,   Thomas,    i78n. 
Sir  Clyomon  and  Sir  Clamydes,  75, 
Sir  Thomas  More,  87. 
Six  Bookes  of  a  Commonzveale,  gon. 
Smith,  Alexander,  i66n. 
Smith,   D.  N.,    I97n,  202n. 
Smith,    G.    G.,    67n,    7on,    7in,    73n, 

83n. 
Smith,   Homer,   is6n. 
Soliman  and  Perseda,  82n,  93,  94. 
Solitarie  Knight,   The,   76. 
Solon,   190. 

Sophocles,    5,   26,   39,   40,   51,   2o5n. 
Sophompaneas,   sn. 
Soul's    Warfare,    The.      See   Divine 

Comedian,   The. 
Southern,   H.,   203n. 
Spanish     Curate,     The,     122,     157, 

i7on. 
Spanish   Friar,   The,   xiii,    170,    171, 

172,   173,   174,   186,   187,   189,  199. 
Spanish  Gypsy,  The,   128. 
Spanish  Lady,  The,  i2on. 
Spectator,  The,  192x1.,  197. 
Speroni,  S.,  8,  3on,  3in. 
Spingarn,  J.  E.,   i65n,  i69n. 
Stapylton,    Sir   Robert,    160. 
Steele,  Richard,  192,  193. 
Stephanos,  gn. 
Stepmother,   The,   160. 
Stevens,   George,    i99n,  202n. 
Stobasus,  Sn. 
Stoll,  E.  E.,  i29n. 
Strange  Discovery,  The,  140. 
Strode,   William,    144. 
Strozzi,   Giulio,   33n. 
Successful  Strangers,  The,  i78n. 
Suckling,   Sir  John,    145,   164. 


Suidas,  9n. 

Summo,  Faustino,  32,  33,  42,  43. 

Suppliants,   4. 

Surpriaal,  The,   165. 

Swisser,  The,   143. 

Tablas  Poeticas,  50. 

Talpcr;    sive    Conjuratio    Papistica, 

i78n. 
Tamburlaine,  90. 
Tancred  and  Gismunda,  75. 
Tasso,  Torquato,  34,  103,   105. 
Tate,  Nahum,   i64n,    180,    192. 
Tatham,  Joseph,   145. 
Taller,  The,  ig2n. 
Tempest,  The,  logn,  114,  203. 
Templo  d'  Apollo,  46n. 
Terence,  4,  22,  22,  45,  49. 
Theagenes  and  Clariclea,   140. 
Theatric  Count,   The,   205n. 
Thorndike,  A.  H.,  inn,  ii3n,  iign. 
Three  Lords  and   Three   Ladies   of 

London,   The,   68. 
Three  Systers  of  Mantua,  y6. 
Tibbals,  K.  W.,  i24n. 
Timoleon;  or,   the  Revolution,   179. 
Timon,   87n. 

Timoneda,  Juan  de,  47n. 
Tom  Tyler  and  His  Wife,  187x1, 
Tourneur,  Cyrill,   109. 
Tragedia,   La,    33n. 
Tragedia    di    lieto    fin     (see,    also. 

Tragedy  of  happy  ending),  ^i,  32, 

33>  36,  66n,  80. 
Tragedies  of  the  Last  Age,  i86n. 
Tragedy  of  happy  ending  (see,  also, 

Tragedia  di  lieto  fin),  30,  32,  33, 

57. 
Tragicocomedia      de     inherosolomi- 

tana       profectione       illustrissimi 

principis  pomeriani,  20-21. 
Tragicomedia   alegorica   del  paraiso 

y  del  infierno,  47x1. 
Tragi-comedie.      L' Argument  pris  du 

troisieme  chapitre  de  Daniel,  i8n, 

54- 


246 


Tragi-Coniical  Reflections,   igin. 
Tragi-Comadia     (of     John     Rowe), 

iSi. 
Tragi-Comcedia   Oxoniensis,   1510. 
Tragique     Comedie     Frangoise     de 

I'homme     instifi,e    par    Foy,     i8n, 

53-54- 
Traite   de   la   disposition   dn   poeme 

dramatique,   58. 
Trapp,  Joseph,  200,  204. 
Trappolin   Crediito   Principe,   146. 
Trionfi,  40. 

Triumpho  do  Inverno,  4611. 
Triumphs  of  Virtue,  The,  lyg, 
Troilus  and  Cressida,   102. 
Troublesome   Reign    of   King   John, 

The,  87. 
True   Declaration   of   the   estate   of 

the  Colonie  in  Virginia,  A,  logn. 
Tryphon,    16311. 
Tuke,  Richard,  17811. 
Tuke,  Sir  Samuel,   i6on. 
Tupper,  J.  W.,  16211. 
Tzvelfth  Night,   85. 
Twins,   The,    140. 
Two    Gentlemen    of    Verona,    The, 

85,  86. 
Two  Noble  Kinsmen,  The,  119,  131, 

IS7. 
Two  Noble  Ladies,  The,  12911. 
Tyde  taryeth  710  Man,  i6n,  65. 
Tyr  et  Sidon,  57. 

Unfortunate  Fortunate,  The,  15611. 

Unnatural  Mother,  The,   16311. 
Valiant   Welshman,   The,   87. 
Vauquelin  de  la  Fresnaye,  511,  55. 
Venice  Preserved,   199. 
Verardi,  Carlo,   19-20,  22,  25. 
Verato,  II,  511,  36,  37,  38. 
Verato  Secondo,  II,  38,  4111. 
Vergerius,   Paul,   181.  . 

Versio    et   Notae    in   Euripides   Cy- 
clop em,   6. 
Very  Woman,  A,  131,   132. 


Vestal  Virgin,  The,  164. 

Vicente,  Gil,  46,  47n. 

Vidal  y  Diaz,  A.,  23n. 

Virgin  Martyr,  The,  131. 

Virtuous  Octavia,  The,  89,  92. 

Vitruvius,    19. 

Volpone,  98,  104. 

Voltaire,  195. 

Vossius,  G.  J.,  4,   5n,   7n,  gn,  204n. 

Walker,  J.   C,  28n,  205n. 
Waller,    Edmund,    i64n,    180. 
Walpole,   Horace,  203. 
Wandering  Lover,  The,  156. 
Wapull,  George,  65. 
Warburton,  Bishop,  204. 
Warburton,   John,    109. 
Ward,  A.  W.,   15 in. 
Warde,  The,  145. 
Warr  of  Grammar,  The,   i78n. 
Weakest  goeth  to  the  Wall,  The,  84. 
Webbe,  William,  83. 
Webster,  John,  96n,  117,   129. 
Weston,  Jo.,   166. 
What  d'ye  call  it?   191. 
Whetstone,   George,  3on,  66-67,   /O- 

71,  75,   76,  90,  95,   100. 
White  Devil,  The,  gSn. 
Whole  Art   of   the   Stage,   The,   4n, 

8n,   :86n. 
Widow  Ranter,  The,  178,  iS/n. 
Widow's  Tears,   The,    100. 
Wife  for  a  Month,  A,  115,  117,  129, 

157,  i93n. 
Wife  of  Bath's  Tale,  The,  122. 
Wife    With    Two    Husbands,    The, 

2osn. 
Wife's  Trial,  The,  205n. 
Wilkes,  T.,   i46n. 
Wilkins,  George,  98. 
Wilmot,  Robert,   75. 
Wilson,  Arthur,  143. 
Wilson,  John,    177. 
Winter's  Tale,  The,  xiii,  113,  114. 
Wisdom  that  is  Christ,  The,  16. 
Wise  Woman  of  Hogsdon,  The,  97. 


247 


Wit  and  Drollery,  15611. 

Witch,  The,  128,   130. 

Witch  of  Edmonton,  The,  127,   130, 

194. 
Withy,  Nathan,   igin. 
Wits  Led  by  the  Nose,  15511. 
Witty  Combat,  A,  16 in. 
Woman    Killed    with    Kindness,    A, 

97,  98,   126, 
Women  Pleased,   122,   189. 
Women's  Conquest,  The,   i66n,  176. 


Wonder  of  a  Kingdom,  The,  129. 
Woodes,   Nathaniel,   65,   70. 
Woodstock,  The  Tragedy  of,  87. 


Young,  Serj.,  205n. 
Young     Admiral,     The, 

138. 
Young  King,   The,   178. 

Ziegler,   Hieronymus,  21. 
Zimraern,  Alice,  ix  n. 
Zuccolo,  Lodivico,  44. 


136, 


VITA 

I  was  born  at  Crawfordsville.  Indiana.  April  ii.  1884,  and 
received  my  early  education  in  the  grammar  schools  of  that 
city  and  in  the  Wabash  preparatory  academy.  In  1901  I 
entered  Wabash  College,  graduating  in  1905  with  the  degree 
of  A.B.  As  Fellow  in  English  I  continued  at  Wabash  during 
the  ensuing  year,  taking  an  A.M.  degree  in  1906.  The  next 
three  years  were  spent  in  residence  work  at  Columbia  Uni- 
versity, where  I  was  a  candidate  for  the  A.M.  and  Ph.D. 
degrees,  and  pursued  work  to  that  end  in  the  departments  of 
English  and  Comparative  Literature  under  Professors 
Matthews,  Trent.  Thorndike,  Krapp.  Lawrence.  Fletcher,  and 
Spingarn,  receiving  the  master's  degree  in  1907  and  the 
doctorate  in  19 10.  During  my  residence  at  Columbia  I  was 
twice  a  scholar  in  English  and  in  the  third  year  the  bene- 
ficiary of  the  departmental  university  fellowship.  In  the  fall 
of  1909  I  returned  to  Wabash  College  as  acting  professor  of 
the  English  Lans:uase   and   Literature. 


^^ 


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